Update: August 2025. Details of this have long since vanished from the web, but here is a video of Dreyfus discussing Moby Dick uploaded in 2018
Sept. 17 Potter lecture
Hubert Dreyfus, “Luring Back the Gods: Polytheism from ‘The Odyssey’ to ‘Moby Dick’” will be the topic of the 49th annual Potter Memorial Lecture at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17 2010, in CUE 203.
The Department of Philosophy will host the talk by Hubert Dreyfus, professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley.
Dreyfus will base the lecture on his forthcoming book, All Things Shining which he wrote with co-author Sean Kelly, and he will discuss work of authors such as Homer, Dante and Melville. Using some of the greatest books in the Western canon, Dreyfus and Kelly show step-by-step how our culture lost its sense of enchantment and meaning.
Dreyfus, who holds a doctoral degree from Harvard University, is considered a leading interpreter of the work of Michel Foucault, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and especially Martin Heidegger.
Along with teaching, Dreyfus has authored 10 books and nearly 200 articles. He has received numerous awards and fellowships, including a Fulbright and a Guggenheim.
The Potter lecture is named in memory of Frank Fraser Potter, a founding member of the WSU Department of Philosophy, who taught Latin, Greek and Italian for more than 35 years. The lecture brings an internationally known philosopher to WSU each year.
For more information about the Potter Memorial Lecture see https://pppa.wsu.edu/events-and-seminars/potter-memorial-lecture/
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