Human knowledge old & new: going back to our roots

Je kunt onze huidige inzichten over de wereld waarin we leven niet losmaken van wat daaraan voorafging in talloze eeuwen menselijke evolutie ...

Daarom kan ik ook niet nalaten om mijn 'idolen' zoals Yeshayahu Leibowitz & Danny Boyarin, Frederic Prokosch & Jackson Browne e.v.a. zo nu en dan te blijven aanhalen, citeren & becommentariëren. 'n Paar miljoen of vele duizenden jaren historie vormen nu eenmaal het fundament van wat we voelen, denken, doen & laten: net doen alsof die nooit bestaan zouden hebben is net zoiets als jezelf van kant maken of vermoord worden ...

We can't abstract our views on current political issues from the broader context of our thought: theological considerations thus also enter into our opinions on so distinctly political an issue as that of occupied territories, evolution in general, social revolutions all over the world & "at home" ...

YL's enduring importance as à contemporary Jewish thinker is associated with his radical theological conceptions & their implicationd for Judaism & Jewish nationhood. These, in turn, must be understood against a background of philosophic premises. Human knowledge: that's what it's all about every day & night of our short life, we can't do without it anymore like clean water, fresh air & all our natural & cultural discoveries all the time?!

Two distinct traditions affect YL's conception of the nature & limitations of knowledge. The first is the theology of Maimonides, with its emphasis on the absolute transcendence of G d, who cannot be conceived by the human mind: (s)he can be known only through 'its' works, that is to say, through the natural order of things. A second tradition stems from the Kantian critique of theoretical reason & supplies an epistemological underpinning for this agnostic type of theology, but also radicalized it. The domain of knowledge is restricted to that which can be a datum for our ex-perience. Not only must the transcendent remain unknown, but even its existence cannot be demonstrated. Critics of YL have taken this theolo-gical agnosticism for atheism without realizing that it is but a working out of the implications of a theology which, like that of Maimonides, insists on the total transcendence of the divine. Knowledge, in the proper sense of the word, is the result of the application of the scientific method: this is the only way we have of obtaining reliable information about natural reality. But if reality is understood in terms of a system of functional relations as it is by those utilizing this method, & not as a system of ends & materials, as it was in ancient & medieval times, the natural world is religiously indifferent. Hence it is absurd to regard revelation as a surrogate or supplement for natural knowledge. Whatever relation may exist between man & G d must be of a normative character.

Liefde woont in goed leven: vrij & ongedwongen elkaar & jezelf accepteren zonder 'idols'.