First published 2015
Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor target the Cartesian worldview that has dominated Western philosophy since Descartes. They argue that the traditional picture of knowledge as mental ideas representing external reality has trapped even critics like Quine, Rorty, and Davidson. The authors demonstrate that human understanding operates through direct bodily engagement with the world rather than through internal mental representations. They show how we learn by handling objects, moving through spaces, and responding to our environment in ways that cannot be reduced to abstract ideas. Dreyfus and Taylor also challenge Descartes' focus on individual consciousness, arguing that much of our knowledge is inherently collective. By dismantling this mediational framework, they eliminate the philosophical puzzles that have plagued thinkers from Hume and Kant to contemporary philosophers. The book restores a realist perspective that affirms our immediate access to both everyday experience and scientific discovery.
Genres: science, philosophy, non-fiction, academic
Vibes: academic, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: academic-discourse, philosophical-argument
184 pages · Hardcover · Harvard University Press