My Path

When I saw the importance of  learning metaphysics and physics in Ibn Pakuda's חובות הלבבות it did not click with me right away. I was at the Mir in NY and was not looking for distractions from learning Gemara. still something of what he was saying must have stuck with me because later when I saw the same thing in the Guide of the Rambam, it started making sense that maybe that was the aspect of learning Torah that I had been lacking. However I really was not sure what to do with the metaphysics aspect of the whole thing.  On one hand the Ibn Pakuda and rambam were clear they were not talking about mysticism. [No offence intended towards the Remak (Moshe Cordovaro) and the Ari (Isaac Luria). It is just that that is not what the Rambam was talking about.] But what can one do with Metaphysics? What could be considered the be fulfilling what the Rambam was saying? Aristotle and Plato for sure. I guess Plotinus also. But what about later on people? To make this short I should ...

It seems to that it is hard to defend faith except from the perceptive of Kelley Ross and the Kant Friesian School. Most of the time it seems to me that the German Idealists are looking to solve the Mind Body problem --or how does knowledge combine reason with facts. But they do not deal with immediate non intuitive knowledge. [Knowledge that you have but it is not based on sense perception nor on logical reasoning.

The main aspects that I recall from my time growing up were the sense of wholesomeness in the USA. There was an amazing amount of love between my parents and us kids  So it is true they they were unique. But that was not in a vacuum. The whole atmosphere in the USA in those days was totally different than it is now. Pretty much everyone spent the weekends on family vacations. [People nowadays will immediately point out that there were cracks. Crimes still happened. But I mean to say that in the USA that was rare. ] It might be that some of that great environment was because I grew up in Newport Beach Orange Count CA. Because after we moved to Los Angeles County, things were somewhat different. Mt dad from what i understood did want my brothers and I to go to a better high school that the one that was in Newport Beach at the time. But I should mention that we did go to a public high school. But judging by what you see nowadays there is no question my parents would have sent us...

I noticed a kind of anti American feeling among immigrants. I could never figure it out. But then the anti americans began to take over the system and things really got out of control.

There is a kind of interplay between DNA and ideals. The USA works to a large degree I think because of both its principles and also because of its principles coming out of many generations of conflict and thinking about politics and religion in England. [Not just the Magna Carta but especially looking at Daniel Defoe I saw this.--In where he deals with the issues facing England in the 1700's] There is a kind of conflict between the facts of DNA and ideals, between Darwin  and the ideals of John Locke. [Hegel would call this process a kind of dialectic between Being and the Absolute Idea. This is a good idea but I think it needs to be taken in context of the post Kant thinkers like Maimon, Shultze, Reinhold.] A lot depends on what kind of people you are dealing with before you can state a priori what kind of system they ought to live under in order to having tranquility and justice and freedom. It is hard to tell. On one hand you can see MacArthur imposing a kind of Ameri...

 Americans traditionally used to have a suspicion (a kind of prejudice) against experts. I share in this to some degree. I think a lot depends on the field in question. For example, in plumbing I would go with the experts.  But there are other field like "Gender Studies" where the experts confer diplomas on themselves and their buddies. Fields that are all just make believe. Philosphy seems to be somewhere in the middle.