Background Practices

Hubert L. Dreyfus is Professor of Philosophy in the Graduate School at the University of California, Berkeley. His research bridges the Analytic and Continental traditions in philosophy. His major interests are phenomenology, existentialism, philosophy of psychology, philosophy of literature, and philosophical implications of artificial intelligence. He is the author of Skillful Coping: Essays on the Phenomenology of Everyday Perception and Action (OUP, 2014), Retrieving Realism (with Charles Taylor, Harvard University Press), and All Things Shining (with Sean Kelly, Simon & Schuster).Mark Wrathall is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philosophy Department at the University of California, Riverside. He works in the phenomenological tradition of philosophy, and is interested in issues surrounding selfhood, responsibility, authenticity, temporality, and the phenomenology of religious life. He is the author of Heidegger and Unconcealment: Truth, Language, and History (CUP) and How to Read Heidegger (W.W. Norton). He has edited a number of volumes, including Skillful Coping: Essays on the Phenomenology of Everyday Perception and Action (OUP, 2014) and The Cambridge Companion to Heidegger's Being and Time (CUP).

• PART I. AUTHENTICITY AND EVERYDAYNESS; PART II. HERMENEUTIC REALISM; PART III. HISTORICAL WORLDS; PART IV. NIHILISM AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL AGE

This book provides, for those unfamiliar with Dreyfus' thought, a useful introduction to his core views regarding the role and nature of background practices, and at the same time offers a handy collection of some of his more important essays for those who are already familiar with his work. It is highly recommended.