Q&A: What is the Rabbi's philosophical motivation?
Originally published:
This is an English translation (via GPT-5.4). Read the original Hebrew version.
What is the Rabbi's philosophical motivation?
Question
Hello Rabbi,
What motivates you in your philosophical inquiries?
Why do you engage in philosophy rather than, say, history or mathematics?
Answer
First, because it interests me.
Second, because philosophy is more of a set of tools than a field of study. These are tools for clarifying various issues that are on the table. Even within philosophy there are quite a few issues that do not interest me. Beyond that, mathematics is a branch of philosophy (formal philosophy).
By the way, to some extent I also engage in both of those.
Discussion on Answer
Philosophy, translated literally, is the love of wisdom.
So: "philosophy" = interpreting phenomena?