Key Arguments

• Dreyfus notes that in learning skills like driving, dancing, or pronouncing a foreign language 'at first we must slowly, awkwardly, and consciously follow the rules', but then there is a transition point where we 'can perform automatically'.
• He emphasizes that in this transition we are not simply pushing the same rigid rules into the unconscious; instead 'we seem to have picked up the muscular gestalt which gives our behavior a new flexibility and smoothness'.
• He extends this to perception, treating it as a skill: 'The same holds for acquiring the skill of perception.'
• He uses Merleau-Ponty’s example of learning to feel silk: before acquiring the appropriate bodily skill 'we experience only confused sensations', but with practice one learns 'to move or be prepared to move one's hand in a certain way and to have certain expectations'.
• He generalizes that 'seeing, too, is a skill that has to be learned. Focusing, getting the right perspective, picking out certain details, all involve coordinated actions and anticipations.'

Source Quotes

a rule in the mind which can be formulated or entertained apart from the actual activity of anticipating the beats. Generally, in acquiring a skillin learning to drive, dance, or pronounce a foreign language, for exampleat first we must slowly, awkwardly, and consciously follow the rules. But then there comes a moment when we finally can perform automatically. At this point we do not seem to be simply dropping these same rigid rules into unconsciousness; rather we seem to have picked up the muscular gestalt which gives our behavior a new flexibility and smoothness.

But then there comes a moment when we finally can perform automatically. At this point we do not seem to be simply dropping these same rigid rules into unconsciousness; rather we seem to have picked up the muscular gestalt which gives our behavior a new flexibility and smoothness. The same holds for acquiring the skill of perception.

At this point we do not seem to be simply dropping these same rigid rules into unconsciousness; rather we seem to have picked up the muscular gestalt which gives our behavior a new flexibility and smoothness. The same holds for acquiring the skill of perception. To take one of Merleau-Ponty's examples: to learn to feel silk, one must learn to move or be prepared to move one's hand in a certain way and to have certain expectations.

The same holds for acquiring the skill of perception. To take one of Merleau-Ponty's examples: to learn to feel silk, one must learn to move or be prepared to move one's hand in a certain way and to have certain expectations. Before we acquire the appropriate skill, we experience only confused sensations.

To take one of Merleau-Ponty's examples: to learn to feel silk, one must learn to move or be prepared to move one's hand in a certain way and to have certain expectations. Before we acquire the appropriate skill, we experience only confused sensations. It is easiest to become aware of the body's role in taste, hearing, and touch, but seeing, too, is a skill that has to be learned.

Before we acquire the appropriate skill, we experience only confused sensations. It is easiest to become aware of the body's role in taste, hearing, and touch, but seeing, too, is a skill that has to be learned. Focusing, getting the right perspective, picking out certain details, all involve coordinated actions and anticipations. As Piaget remarks, "Perceptual constancy seems to be the product of genuine actions, which consist of actual or potential movements of the glance or of the organs concerned. . . .

Key Concepts

• at first we must slowly, awkwardly, and consciously follow the rules. But then there comes a moment when we finally can perform automatically.
• At this point we do not seem to be simply dropping these same rigid rules into unconsciousness; rather we seem to have picked up the muscular gestalt which gives our behavior a new flexibility and smoothness.
• The same holds for acquiring the skill of perception.
• to learn to feel silk, one must learn to move or be prepared to move one's hand in a certain way and to have certain expectations.
• Before we acquire the appropriate skill, we experience only confused sensations.
• seeing, too, is a skill that has to be learned. Focusing, getting the right perspective, picking out certain details, all involve coordinated actions and anticipations.

Context

Opening of this excerpt in 'The Role of the Body in Intelligent Behavior', where Dreyfus generalizes from overt skills to perception to argue that expertise is grounded in embodied gestalts rather than in unconscious rule application.