Q&A: Philosophical Persuasion
Philosophical Persuasion
Question
Has the Rabbi managed to persuade philosophers with his arguments? Has the Rabbi managed to “bring any philosopher to repentance” from any philosophy faculty?
Have you received criticism of your proofs for the existence of God, for example? I assume they’re not really that good if they didn’t persuade you, but have you received any solid, substantive criticism on the matter?
Answer
I never tried. I haven’t received criticisms, aside from the discussions on YNET about the series I published there. See the talkbacks there.
Discussion on Answer
There’s no fixed mechanism. If someone reads it and wants to comment or write a review, they do so.
In one of the Rabbi’s articles it says that the argument was approved by third-year philosophy students at Tel Aviv University. Doesn’t that count?
I presented a version of the “theological” argument in a seminar for third-year students at Tel Aviv University, and there were no objections.
It seems to me that the questioner has some idealized picture in his head of philosophers that doesn’t really exist. It’s enough to look at the link below for the faculty of the philosophy department at the Hebrew University to see that there isn’t much engagement there with philosophy or philosophical thinking as such. They all research the philosophy of some other field instead of presenting independent philosophical thought of their own. (This stands out especially with David Enoch, who writes in a very aggressive style but without presenting any philosophical thinking that explains itself.) In that situation, I wonder whether they are really capable of reading the Rabbi’s books, or of coping with them at all.
https://philosophy.huji.ac.il/people/%D7%A1%D7%92%D7%9C/%D7%A1%D7%92%D7%9C-%D7%90%D7%A7%D7%93%D7%9E%D7%99
How does that work? In principle, can you get “peer review” on something like this? In a philosophy faculty or whatever..