Well, I tried to write about my books and how I want to prune my library, and ended up writing a history of my interests. I know there are loose ends, but I am tired of writing, so blat, here it is: I used to have strict criteria for book purchases. To earn a place … Continue reading An autobibliobiography
A part of my autobiography that I had to compress into two lines was my experience with Jewish thinkers. Judaism only became a serious interest for me following my very strange experience of intensive study of Nietzsche starting in 2002 and extending to around 2006. During this time under Nietzsche’s influence I excavated the assumptions at the foundation of … Continue reading Jewish red thread
As part of my conversion process I’ve been asked to write a 500-word spiritual autobiography, and to pick out a Hebrew name. I thought I would choose Israel or Yisrael, but then I found Nachshon, and it is perfect for me. Reading back over my own autobiography, I feel a need to thank and apologize to everyone who … Continue reading My 500-word spiritual autobiography
Two details from a passage in Martin Buber’s Between Man and Man have stayed with me over the years. My friendship with one now dead arose in an incident that may be described, if you will, as a broken-off conversation. The date is Easter 1914. Some men from different European peoples had met in an undefined presentiment of … Continue reading A Jew trapped in a Gentile’s biography
The following is more of a diary entry than an article. I have put too little effort into editing, and it might make sense only to me. I just wanted to get a snapshot of these ideas as they exist today, before they change or disappear. * The start of an idea: it seems that … Continue reading Idea dump: intimacy, design/engineering/philosophy, social science-technologies
To the degree an individual participates in the life of a group, the behavior tends to be formatted according to conventions of speech, concept and procedure. One uses the vocabulary, ideas and behaviors easily understood and accepted by the majority of group members, in order to gain influence within the pace and formatting of group … Continue reading Group capacity to think
Below is a chord of passages on social versus interhuman interactions, which I believe illuminate a key difference between introverts and extraverts. Extraverts seem to prefer social interactions, where each person plays a role as a participant in some cultural order. Introverts seem to prefer interpersonal dialogue exposing the unique particularity of the individual (which … Continue reading Chord: social versus interhuman
I very nearly re-wrote a post I already wrote in 2010, drawing out a chord from two passages from Nietzsche and Buber, both distinguishing between dialogue that takes place between individuals and discussion that takes place among members of a group — what Buber called interhuman versus social phenomena. The reason I was going to … Continue reading Introversion and extraversion strategies
Working in my wiki this morning, I found myself tagging this passage from Martin Buber with the theme “tragedy“: If a man were only guilty toward himself, in order to satisfy the demanding summons that meets him at the height of conscience, he would only need to take this one road from the gate of … Continue reading Tragically Jewish
If you interview a group, do not make the mistake of thinking you are efficiently interviewing many individuals at once. If you are interviewing a group you are interviewing a group. So make sure that the group you are interviewing represents a group who will be acting together in real life in whatever situation you … Continue reading Group interviews
From Richard Polt’s Heidegger: An Introduction: “A few days before his death, Heidegger penned a motto for his collected edition: “Ways, not works”. He explained this motto in some notes for a preface: The collected edition should indicate various ways: it is underway in the field of paths of the self-transforming asking of the many-sided … Continue reading Heidegger’s Te
I’m starting to disbelieve in the common belief that Levinas is the heir of Buber, who has somehow made Buber obsolete. I don’t believe they share moral vision. Maybe the most important evidence is the experience of reading them, which could not be less similar despite their common material. Buber is an electrifying read, where … Continue reading Questioning Levinas
We cannot directly control our perceptions. We can partly control our attention. Perceiving is passive; attending is active. * Relevance does not actually belong to perception. It belongs to attention. We do not perceive irrelevance in another person’s argument, but, rather, refuse to attend to the argument in a way that reveals its relevance. * … Continue reading Walk
People love to watch an artist draw. He draws a line and slowly it becomes a shape. He adds more lines, and introduces shading. So far, the relationships are all within the page; a composition takes form. But the drawing suggests that it is a drawing of something — but of what? Here is where … Continue reading Vision and voice
I’m thinking out loud here, so please forgive the tedium and unclarity. I’m also traveling, and that always messes me up pretty seriously. Just to get these thoughts out, I’m saying what comes to mind and not worrying excessively over how much sense I’m making much less how persuasive I’m being. So there’s even less … Continue reading Thoughts on double meanings
Quantity of reverence matters less than quality of influence. To revere someone excessively — to make a person an object of worship instead of a teacher with a relevant, practical and surprising lesson — can even be a defense against influence. * It is easy to revere something of one’s own invention, but the kinds … Continue reading Influence over reverence
Nietzsche: “What Homer says of it is so true and so terrible it pierces us through: ‘the muse loved him dearly and gave to him good and evil; for she took from him his eyes and bestowed upon him sweet song.’ — This is a text without end for the thinker: she gives good AND … Continue reading Observations
Social being can be experienced: From within/participatorily as a We — to which I am subject and reflected to myself, faithfully; From within/participatorily as a They — to which I am subject but from which I am alienated and reflected to myself, unfaithfully; From without/objectively as an Us — to which I belong, but seen … Continue reading Modes of the social
“No society can properly function without classification, without an arrangement of things and men in classes and prescribed types. This necessary classification is the basis for all social discrimination, and discrimination, present opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, is no less a constituent element of the social realm than equality is a constituent element of the … Continue reading Who and what
Singing sonar songs, we flit in the dark, not even flying, bouncing words off invisible ears arrayed in space, ascertaining where this other stands relative to ourselves in reality. * “Eyes are more accurate witnesses than ears.” — Heraclitus “What Homer says of it is so true and so terrible it pierces us through: ‘the … Continue reading Ear and eye