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The equivalent of Aristotelian logic to Kabbalistic terms of pairing and fertilization

שו"תThe equivalent of Aristotelian logic to Kabbalistic terms of pairing and fertilization
שאל לפני 4 שנים

Peace be upon you, our Lord! How are you? In your books, as I recall, you dealt with the relationship between wisdom and understanding (human as hay, etc.). And this time I wanted to find out what the meaning of conception and birth is in Kabbalah, according to the Ramchal's interpretation (I will quote the passage after the question). I see that he is trying to address the ways in which wisdom connects to understanding (on the cognitive level) as the relationship of the first premise to the second premise in the Aristotelian deductive argument (I hope I am right, that is how it seems to me). My question is twofold: A. Is there something in the deductive argument that requires the first premise (or even one of them) to be general and the second to be particular? (Matter and form in the Ramchal's language, or wisdom – general versus understanding – particular)? In other words, I can understand it being said that the claim "all Greeks are mortal" is general, and "Socrates is a Greek" – is a detail (although this is not a detail that specifies the general but only reduces it). Will the argument only work in this way? I am asking a simple question in logic, to understand whether it is indeed necessary that wisdom (the general – all mortal Greeks) precede and 'mating' with understanding (the particular – "Socrates is mortal") in order for the argument to be valid? What will happen if we precede the particular to the general? And what will happen if there are two generals, will the argument lose some of its force? I am simply trying to understand what Ramchal means. Second question: What is the meaning of matter and form in these words of the Ramchal? (Rabbi Spiner wrote, Da'at HaHadash, p. Shatzah: "It should be noted that the terms matter and form come here in a different understanding than most of the ancients who spoke of it and explained it as, for example, body and soul, corporeal and spiritual, and here the Ramchal explains: general and particular. I do not recall in the writings of the Ramchal that he speaks further about this matter of matter and form" (cf.).
Here is the passage in question (the beginning of the passage in parentheses is only necessary for understanding the context, and for the way in which Ramchal introduces the reader to a cognitive, rather than physical, way of understanding the Sefirot. Each of the terms mochin, evur, etc. receives a logical explanation:
(First Rules, Rule 22) The matter of the pairing of conception and birth mentioned in the Sefirot is that these are the kinds of illuminations that the Lord God renewed to be an illuminator for His creatures. They have an order and a law, and are arranged in a moral order, until they are all matters that require one another, and relate to one another, and join one another in many ways. And they are all the matters required in the tree of faces. For the clothing that the upper faces wear in the lower ones is – whose matter is hidden within the matter of those lower ones . And we will notice here the benefit that comes to the one who dresses, who is hidden, and to the dressers who are amazed by that clothing according to what it is:
And the matter of the mind – the reason why the higher becomes the mind in the lower is that to complete the matter of that lower, it will have to enter into something – the higher than it. And the internal minds will be in the form of a closer cause , and those that surround them in the form of a more distant cause 🙂
Below is the excerpt! (with commentary by Rabbi Spiner):
In our case, the coupling of conception and birth is that since all these matters proceed from each other, in the order of cause and effect, then all these necessary things will be possible in them. For when one light (=birth) emerges, which is one measure, by virtue of the two lights that precede it, which are the assumptions that precede that measure, it will be necessary that at first an action be given in the grouping to the two assumptions (=conception), that they both act together (=conception) to produce their result. And when we get down to the details of the matter, it will appear that the matters and illuminations that we mentioned, which gradually emerge in the way of cause and effect, we will discern in them a material cause and a formal cause, or we will say a general cause and a private cause. And that is, for each measure or light, two lights will precede it that will produce it, one will give its generality and materiality (=conception), the other – its details in form, and the matter (=conception) will emerge from the general to the private cause. Then the result (=birth) will emerge from the connection that is made between the two. And this is the pairing that is in the connection of the two causes that we mentioned. And the departure of the matter from the general to the particular, and still in the particular cause, before its coming into effect (??? What is the equivalent of this in logic) – will be called conception, and its coming into effect – birth. Etc. etc.
((NB. He wrote this in the corresponding passage in Da'at Tivonot:
14) The intellect said – the great Rabbi Maimonides, may God have mercy on him, was awakened by the title "child" found in the Scriptures, copied to things in which birth is not special. And he said (Moreh Nevuchim, Shaar 1, Chapter 7), "Child – this word was borrowed for the invention of natural things – "Before the mountains bring forth" (Psalms 70:2), and it was further borrowed for the innovations of thoughts, and whatever it requires from the opinions and agreements, such as (Psalms 7:15), "And a false child," from which it is said (Isaiah 2:6), "And with the children of the Gentiles they shall be satisfied," etc. And this title was copied to the thought, it and all that are similar to it; and we mean that just as the title of birth was borrowed from the thing that is renewed, so the thing that stands in the power to come into being is borrowed from pregnancy, and according to the words of the Scripture itself (Psalms 7:15), "She conceives in labor and gives birth in falsehood"; for to whom the one verb was copied, all its other details were also copied. And indeed we knew that every agreement of advice that is derived from a correct reason will have its progenitors, which are the first premises. And indeed, the progenitor's progenitor is the force before it is born from it, and in its birth – it goes from force to action:
And no more, but since every thing that is completed has its perfection in addition to its existence, because it is possible for it to find something other than that perfection. Indeed, two things will come to the cause of that thing, namely its finding and its completion, because the existent cause is the complete and constant cause of existence, and the completion of the cause is not the completion of the cause, but the perfection of the birth of the cause, so that when it gives birth to everything that is in its nature to give birth, that birth will be found complete in all its perfection. And all this is simple for those who are on the path of wisdom… And all these are simple matters for those who know the paths of the exemplary wisdoms:))
 


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מיכי צוות ענה לפני 4 שנים
That seems to be what he meant. But there is no such necessity. For example, if every frog is a right triangle, and every triangle is a cloud, then every frog is a cloud. There should be a relation of inclusion and not necessarily a private claim. There are also deductions that are not based on inclusion. If every cloud sails fast and everything that sails fast is beautiful, then a cloud is beautiful.  

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