Chapters/Argument #s 10-18. Presentation: Amanda
- Select one of the first 18 chapters and one of the first 18 Appendix arguments: compare, contrast, discuss, evaluate... Can you discern an "argument" (with explicit premises, inferences, & conclusions) in the chapter? Is that what most people mean when they speak of an argument they think supports their point of view? Should they?
- How would you summarize the "argument" in any of chapters 10-18? Do your words capture its essence? If words fail, is that sufficient grounds for a mystical approach to religion? Or for philosophic skepticism? Or what?
- Does the quest for "Hellenism," the spirit of Greek philosophy that exalts art and embodiment, necessarily represent a repudiation of "religious purity" and an endorsement of cosmopolitanism? 126 More broadly, do you think philosophy and religion can peaceably coexist in mutual tolerance and respect?
- What does "spiritual purity" mean to you? Does it signify an "immaterial soul distinct from [y]our bod[y]"? 127
- Are "lost paradises... the only paradises there are"? 135 (We might relate this to Makatea.)
- Comment? "Whether God is a metaphoror a fact cannot be reasonably argued." 136
- What's the significance of Klapper's observation that the number 36 "is of a hiddenness that sustains existence"? 137
- Do you think it likely that a mystical ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish sect (like the "Valdeners") might deliberately pattern itself on the transcendentalist philosophy of Emerson and Thoreau? What do you think they might think of it?
- What do you think of the way Klapper and the Rebbe regard women? And how can we square that with Klapper's interest in "gynecologico-cosmogony"? 185
- Comment?: [Cass] "doesn’t have the snarky anti-theological ire of a Dawkins, a Harris, or a Hitchens, because he understands the deep place from where belief arises, and he has a genuine respect for religious sensibility and commitment." tnr
- Do you think the existence of bright and precocious children somehow supports the likelihood that an omnipotent (etc.) god exists? Does the elegance and symmetry of mathematics, and the mystery of prime numbers, somehow support belief in God or any other theological/metaphysical speculation? At what age does having the concept of prime numbers cease to impress?
- Do you agree that it is "a prejudice of temporalism" to discount or devalue religions of relatively recent invention? 141 Could that, btw, be the reason Klapper assigned Cass The Book of Mormon? 135
- What "metaphysical mishap" might have "accompanied the creation of the world"? Might it have something to do with what Nietzsche (via Susan Neiman in Why Grow Up) called "the metaphysical wound at the heart of existence"?
- What do you think of the irony of bringing Heidegger's philosophy to bear on Jewish mysticism? What can it mean to say "We come too late for the gods" etc.? (Is that the flip-side of Nietzsche's Zarathustra, come too soon for "the death of God"?) 155
- What are your thoughts about tikkun olam? 156 Is it analogous to pragmatic meliorism?
- Is it true that we're all mathematically guaranteed to have famous people in our lineage? 160 (I claim Daniel Boone and signer of the Declaration of Independence John Hart... or my dad did. And I'd like to claim poet Mary Oliver, comic John Oliver, chef Jamie Oliver...)
- Is "having to deal with the world" a threat to spirituality? 162 Or could it be the actual condition of a suitably this-worldly spirituality?
- Have you read the "metaphysical fabulist" Jorge Luis Borges? He said “I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” And: “To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible god.” And: “Don't talk unless you can improve the silence.” And: “The mind was dreaming. The world was its dream.” And: “Heaven and hell seem out of proportion to me: the actions of men do not deserve so much.” And: “A writer - and, I believe, generally all persons - must think that whatever happens to him or her is a resource. All things have been given to us for a purpose, and an artist must feel this more intensely. All that happens to us, including our humiliations, our misfortunes, our embarrassments, all is given to us as raw material, as clay, so that we may shape our art.” Comment?
- Is "genius" a genetic disorder? 169
- What do you think of the "Lamedvavniks" (or the fact that there are supposedly 36 of them)? Or of the idea that a small number of humans are saving the world from destruction? 170
- Are you personally affronted by mathematics? 171 Or intimidated? Or disinterested?
- What is a current example of "junk ideas on American campuses"?
- Are there children who are "born as if knowing"? 176 Is this what Plato had in mind by the theory of recollection, in his Meno?
- Should it be the goal of our education system to minimize the role of "blessed confluence" in allowing brilliant humans to shine? 176
- Is life a zero-sum game? 179f.
- Comment?: "It isn't always sensible to be rational." 181
- If you love someone, should you be first to say so?
- Would you ever sit through a four and a half hour lecture without a break? 183
- What does it mean to say that the tree of life has its roots in "the pure negativity of absolute unity"? 184
- Can belief be prescribed? 187 Should it be?
- What do you think of Maimonides' Aristotelian marriage?
- Do you credit your mother for your "genius" (or your talents)? 188
- What do you make of the chicken story? Is it less absurd if you substitute cattle? 189
- Is the extraordinary implicit in the ordinary, and vice versa? 190
- Do you try to practice Zen and just let your thoughts go? 195 Or Zen laughter? 198
- What do you think of William James's experiments with nitrous oxide? 199
- Should Cass be embarrassed to be labeled a philosopher? 201
- Is intellectual achievement a zero-sum game? 204
- Do you think there are good arguments (in the philosophical/logical or the colloquial/everyday sense) against atheism?
- A story in the Sunday NYTimes discussed the feelings of "reverence" evoked for many by the just-concluded Artemis moon mission. Others hear a more secular/humanist message in astronaut Koch's statement that planet Earth is a "crew"... What do you think? Are you inspired by Artemis, either in religious or humanist terms? ["Are you a humanist?"] Do you share Edgar Mitchell's lunar perspective?
2. Does the quest for "Hellenism," the spirit of Greek philosophy that exalts art and embodiment, necessarily represent a repudiation of "religious purity" and an endorsement of cosmopolitanism? 126 More broadly, do you think philosophy and religion can peaceably coexist in mutual tolerance and respect?
ReplyDeleteFaith and reason should be two halves of the same whole. Where things become conflated is when people's own perception of what is moral/traditional overshadows the human nature of skepticism. You also have to consider the lost art of critical thinking. Faith and reason should be able to coexist; in Christianity, many of the religion's modern aspects are not traditional in the sense of Jesus's true teachings when he was on earth. Some of the information has been doctored throughout centuries to fit a certain narrative (which leads into a different conversation). This ironically goes against the "traditional" upkeep that many Christians teach. Regarding cosmopolitanism, many academics would argue that Jesus would be in favor of it, considering that Jesus was traditionally a marginalized person who championed anti-establishment, a different narrative that most socially modern Christians fail to understand.
Agreed. Jesus taught universal brother-/sisterhood, and was at least as much a "citizen of the cosmos" as the guy who first called himself a cosmopolitan, Diogenes the Cynic. Faith that does not acknowledge reason, and reason that does not admit its limitations, are equally deficient.
Delete27. If you love someone, you should be the first to say so because I do not think you should bottle up such a strong emotion. What is supposed to happen will happen. However, we must first identify what is love rather than lust or pure excitement, and we must also account for the components of our relationship such as time and substance, so we are not misreading and confessing prematurely. Also, what if both people feel the same and no one shares it? I do not think this should be a motive to confess but rather a thought to consider. This does not only apply to romantic relationships. Love should be communicated but most importantly acted upon.
ReplyDeleteSo Cass's ruminations on whether to speak the words is just self-defeating... but when he does blurt them out and she makes no acknowledgement, what then? That would have to be deflating. Humans don't like being deflated. Or human egos don't. That's another question: can we transcend ego? And why don't we try harder to do so?
Delete17. I do not think having to deal with the world is a threat to spirituality. I think dealing with the world may test you in ways that require you to engage more deeply with your spiritual side for stability.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, for us pragmatic meliorists (and apparently for "tikkun olam" healers too) our spirituality largely consists precisely in "dealing with the world" and working to repair it.
Delete28. Only if it was a topic that really grabbed my attention and was presented with strategic enthusiasm. I have been less productive without a break many times over the years.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you, Markeem. The lecture would have to be presented in a very engaging way and on a topic I am very interested in, otherwise it is hard to stay entirely focused on it the whole time.
DeleteWell don't worry, you'll never get that from me. My wife goes to continuing ed sessions in which speakers drone on for hours. I don't know how anyone tolerates that. Or does it.
Delete5. Are "lost paradises... the only paradises there are"? (We might relate this to Makatea.)
ReplyDeleteI would say yes. Paradises—both real and fictional—tend to become “lost” after acts of human transgression. Adam and Eve got kicked out of Eden for disobeying God’s instruction not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge. Atlantis was swallowed by the sea due to the arrogance of its people. Makatea had all its forests and coral reefs decimated when Westerners arrived to exploit the land for its resources. People—especially those with power/wealth/influence—tend to mess up a good thing. The real paradises are the ones we’ve lost (in the state they were in before they were lost) and the ones we haven’t found yet. Maybe we should stop looking.
And yet, the tree of knowledge just is paradise for some of us. I say keep looking... but don't expect that we'll all agree on what paradise, or heaven, should look like.
Delete28. Would you ever sit through a four and a half hour lecture without a break?
ReplyDeleteNo, absolutely not. Four and a half hours is already too long for a lecture. That duration, plus the added torture of no bathroom breaks or time to stand up and stretch my legs, sounds like the seventh circle of Hell. I’d have a hard time concentrating for that long without a break. I wouldn’t mind sitting through maybe a 4-hour lecture if there were a 20 to 30-minute break in the middle. But 4.5 hours, even with a break, is just too long. I thought it was arrogant and wholly inconsiderate for Jonas Elijah Klapper to subject his students to that.
And as a man of a certain age, I really don't find it plausible that he could go that long without a bathroom break himself. Unless he's wearing a... never mind, we don't need to ponder that mental picture.
Delete