XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: Taemon@zonnet.nl   
      
   On 17-6-2014 19:22, Paul S. Person wrote:   
   > On Mon, 16 Jun 2014 21:36:14 +0200, Taemon  wrote:   
   >> On 14-6-2014 19:24, Paul S. Person wrote:   
   > Then again, the same can be said of many arcane academic fields. When   
   > I read von Rad's /Old Testament Theology/ a few years back, I found it   
   > very entertaining intellectually. Whether he is right or not is a   
   > completely different issue. Even commentaries can be intellectually   
   > gripping -- I have a commentary on the Psalms which, IIRC (it's been   
   > quite a while since I read it) attempts to reconstruct just what the   
   > Israelites were actually doing in the Temple and, believe me, what   
   > they come up with is /nothing/ like what your Sunday School teacher   
   > very likely told you (or would have told you, had you had one)!   
      
   I recently started "Zealot" by Reza Aslan. I think that one would have   
   caused my Sunday School teacher a heart attack, had I had one, which I   
   didn't.   
      
   > Having read a bit more, I can wonder whether, if the World Mind has   
   > achieved Old Age with the German People (of Hegel's time, about 200   
   > years ago), what state is it in today? Does it have Alzheimer's? That   
   > might explain a few things. Has it died? That might also be very   
   > explanatory of modern times. (You might think that, being spirit, it   
   > cannot die, and Hegel might agree with you; but if if can go through   
   > childhood, adolescence, manhood, and old age, why, exactly, should it   
   > not be able to die as well?)   
      
   That's the catch with immortality. No matter how long you're young,   
   you're going to be old much, much longer.   
      
   > Perhaps, having once achieved Old Age, the World Mind will stay in   
   > that condition forever. Lucky us! To be forever in a state where   
   > "freedom" (as "shown" in the /Philosophy of Right/) consists in doing   
   > our duty -- to the State. Teach people /that/ for 200 years and "I was   
   > only following orders" begins to sound like a valid defense against   
   > any charge.   
      
   That does sound like the free will concept as explained to me by some   
   Christians. You know, the kind in which if you use your free will to do   
   something else then God wants you to, you'll end up in Hell. (Chorus:   
   "But he loves you!")   
      
   >>> But the, Kant was much the same: all that analysis,   
   >>> and he ends up "proving" is, clearly, that the traditional values he   
   >>> grew up with are the only possible values.   
   >> Yes! Yes! True knowledge is brutal. If it doesn't grind your worldview   
   >> to pieces you're not doing it right.   
   > It just seems a bit ... coincidental ... that these highly-educated   
   > and highly-cultered philosophers should always end up supporting the   
   > exact same social/ethical/political situation they would have   
   > supported had they been unlettered peasants.   
      
   Absolutely. Intellectual cowardness. Well, I guess in a perfect society   
   it would be the right conclusion but I dare put forward the idea that   
   their society wasn't, in fact, perfect.   
      
   > I mean, what is the point of all that education if you end up in the   
   > same state with it as you would have been without it?   
      
   Well, education is its own reward. If you're rich and independent, that is.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)