Dreyfus Tracks
From Whooshup.org
Dreyfus Tracks
Dreyfus' contributions can be roughly divided into four different, and somewhat arbitrary, categories, which I call Tracks. I should strongly emphasize that all the subsequent tracks are firmly rooted in the first track, and that Dreyfus' reading and cross-referencing of the great European philosophers and thinkers of the 19th and 20th centuries to the practical American stance that gave birth to both the Space Age and the Computer Age, forms the crux of his positions.
Track 1: An Exposition of Continental Philosophy, emphasizing Heidegger and Phenomenology
Track 2: A Critique of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Track 3: A Model of Skill Acquisition Stages
Track 4: A Critique of the Technological Culture
Dreyfus has been extremely active in the first two tracks since the 1960's, and these two tracks are commonly attributed to him by other commentators, who note that even people who disagree with his attack on AI affirm his positive influence in bridging between Continental and the American, or more broadly the english-speaking, Analytic traditions. The third track, a Learning Model that Dreyfus has used consistently since the early 1980's to explain differences between human and digital possibilities of expertise, is not frequently separated, however I find it important enough to isolate and treat separately. The fourth track, a commentary on the perils of a technology culture that is increasingly dispersed and banal, to use some of his frequent adjectives, has arisen along with the Internet, since the 1990's.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Track 2. This is the critique of Artificial Intelligence. Well documented. Supports a singularizing claim of predicting the failure of the AI claims made in the 1960's with justification and adoption of the essential critique within the science by 2000. This track draws on early Heidegger backed up by Wittgenstein, Merleau-Ponty, and with a scientific base in JJ Gibson and Walter Freeman.
Track 1B/C. This is the fundamental inquiry into (1) the roots of existentialism in Kierkegaard, Dostoevsky, and Neitszche that set the stage for Heidegger by beginning the overthrow of rationalism and ontotheology, and (2) the application of Heidegger's theory of historical world cultures which are defined by an understanding of works of art. Supports a singularizing claim of having distilled an Articulation - Reconfiguration diadic structure of significant explanatory and predictive power.
Track 3. This is the creation of a theory regarding (intitally) five stages of human learning: novice, beginner, competence, mastery, expertise. It ties the two other tracks together, because it explains what computer's can't do, and, when extended to stages beyond mere expertise (six, cultural master or phronemos, and seven, world discloser or reconfigurer), shows a structured progression through the highest stage of individual human development.
