East & West

I'm off Twitter/X for another solid month again, until the end of June. Blessed Eid ahead!

@mboudry @BenKhalud De hoofdlijnen van het stuk kloppen natuurlijk wel. Echter, "samenleving" is hier het holle begrip. Die is dermate doorheen de "wasmachine vd Verlichting gegaan" dat er nog slechts een geatomiseerde maatschappij rest waarin velen hun toevlucht zoeken in simplistische denkbeelden.

Beste @BenKhalud, hier is een voorstel voor het publieke debat: als je wil dat we je argumenten ernstig nemen, wil je dan minstens de moeite nemen om ze zelf te schrijven? Pangram is de betrouwbaarste AI-detector. Wie deze tekst leest, ziet dat ze ook druipt van holle AI-frasen: - Zeer korte, op zichzelf staande zinnen ("21!" / "Dat is geen islamitisch fenomeen. Dat is een maatschappelijk fenomeen." / "En waar hoop verdwijnt, groeit nostalgie."). Types LLM-ritme, ik vermoed specifiek GPT. - Parallelle opsommingen ("Vrouwenrechten. Arbeidersrechten. Homorechten. Burgerrechten."), met veel drieslagen en vierslagen ("Terwijl de werkelijkheid veel complexer, weerbarstiger én ongemakkelijker is.") - De "niet X, maar Y"-constructie komt meermaals terug ("Dat is geen ernstige wetenschap meer. Dat is zuiver ideologische projectie..."). knack.be/nieuws/belgie/…

"Lust for wealth allows a man no leisure time for attention to anything else [such as practicing noble pursuits] save his own private property; and when the soul of every citizen hangs upon this, it is incapable of attending to matters other than daily gain." Plato's Laws, B.VIII

Cohen argued that Jews had an obligation to remain in their countries of birth, so that their religious communities could serve as exemplars for the rest of humanity of communities unified by ethical laws."--Scott Edgar (SEP)

A similar reasoning in Hermann Cohen (1842-1918): "for Cohen Judaism ultimately aims at an ethical ideal that includes all humanity, he rejected the nationalism he saw in non-liberal forms of Judaism and was a vocal critic of Zionism... x.com/BheriaMS/statu…

"We face a fundamental political question for “societies”: What makes human beings beget children? One could mention many things different in nature... But above all there is the need for two things: a vision [beyond the saeculum] and a choice [that is “metaphysical”]."—R. Brague

@wduyck Ik vermoed dat Haidt toch wel één en ander op het spoor is en ben het eens met zijn (opvoedkundige) aanbevelingen.

@philo_islamica Generatie angst van Jonathan Haidt

Nu circuleert een grafiek op X waarin de dalende kinderwens óók al “de schuld is van social media en smartphones”. Ernstige tijdschriften tonen dan deze grafieken. Je kan dus gewoon om het even welke daling die ongeveer in 2012 begon aan GSMs toeschrijven. Stop ermee. Het is de oudste denkfout in het boekje. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. Laat ons ernstige problemen aanpakken zoals stoomdoden, spinnen en scheidingen simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_…

or the soul with learning and moral training: nay, every night and day is not sufficient for the man who is occupied therein to win from them their fruit in full and ample measure." (Plato's Laws, B. VII)

"That life we speak of, which most truly deserves the name of "life", [is] occupied with the care of bodily and spiritual excellence in general. For there ought to be no other secondary task to hinder the work of supplying the body with its proper exercise and nourishment,...

Hijab is not a symbol of oppression. Hijab was a type of dress historically worn by free upper class women in Muslim and Christian societies. Many women in Europe wore hijab until early 1900s. Read Sandra Bullock’s book which interviews numerous women in why they wear hijab and it’s almost never because they are oppressed. I say this as a Muslim who doesn’t believe hijab is mandatory religious dress.

@AkyolinEnglish Plato thought that music—mousikē in its broad sense—is an imitation or mimetic device of both good and bad, noble and blameworthy, profoundly formative for the soul; he proposed to "consecrate" the former, shield it from innovation, and to the extent possible, censure the latter.

Some Muslims believe music is haram, or religiously impermissible. Others (including me) don’t see a problem. There will be no problem if everyone follows their persuasion. Unlike, say, the Taliban, who ban music to everyone. The solution is in “No compulsion in religion.”

@paul_jkrause Could it be that Plato thought that "music", mousikē in its broad sense, is an imitation or mimetic device of both good and bad, noble and blameworthy; and that he proposed to "consecrate" the former, shield it from innovation and corruption, and, if possible, censure the latter?

Plato was both right and wrong about the poets, the artists—art and poetry is powerful. However, it can be a force for good. In fact, it is a better force for good than philosophy.

@VanDammeEDU Het veld tss staat, markt en individu is de gemeenschap—de primordiale levensvorm waarzonder de mens eigenlijk niet tot een goed en geslaagd leven kan komen. De gemeenschap berust op bloedband (familie), gedeeld geloof (religie), en/of vriendschap. Hoe is het daarmee nu gesteld?

Ik deel de mening dat een volwaardige democratie nood heeft aan een veld tussen staat, markt en individu. Maar verdedigers van het middenveld hanteren een politieke visie die empirisch op zijn best naar de 2de helft 20ste eeuw verwijst, toen die organisaties mobiliserend en

My top 4 recommendations for someone who is looking for an in-depth introduction to Formative Twelver Shi'i Islam. Haider explains origins, Asatryan disputes, Hayes occultation, and Modarressi sources.

Paul Davies, on the rational order of the universe. "What is undeniable—you can't be a scientist without supposing that there is a rational order in nature that is at least in part intelligible to us. And I'd just like to say a few words about that second aspect, the intelligibility. Einstein once said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it's comprehensible. People will often shrug this aside—scientists themselves will shrug this aside: 'Of course the scientists can understand the universe because they're paid to do that, that's their job.' They find it no surprise. I think it's absolutely stunning that the human brain, which has evolved to survive in the proverbial jungle, has within it the ability to decode nature in this thoroughly deep manner that is typified by theoretical physics." youtube.com/watch?v=X3RMZr…

From Frank Griffel's 2021 book: "[William] Gairdner [1914] and [Richard] Frank [1992/94] are the two extremes of the Western academic debate on al-Ghazālī's esotericism during the 20th century. They also bookmark the debate's beginning and end."

...but the just things regardless whether they are done by him or by someone else. Too great a love of oneself is also at the bottom of the conceit that one knows everything while knowing nothing."--Leo Strauss (1975), on excessive self-love (pride) in Plato's Laws B.V

"Every man is by nature dear to himself and this is as it should be. But too great love of oneself accounts for all mistakes men commit since it induces them to honor more what is their own than what is just; he who is to be a "great man" must love, not himself nor what is his...

🧵1/9 Prof. Frank Griffel’s lecture on Maimonides’s Seventh Reason for contradictions at the Oxford Jewish Student Centre