My motivation to express and communicate my thoughts on these things is curtailed on one side by an awareness of the immensity of my ignorance, and on the other side by my fear that I have no right to promote such substantial claims given my absent credentials.<\/p>\n
What follows is successful if it convinces the following: I have a unique perspective, which forms an expertise on the basis of its idiosyncrasy (and not on the basis of expertise in any particular domain or school of thought or practice).<\/p>\n
In the first, I am a unique personality. Everyone is a unique personality, but just so.<\/p>\n
In the second are my various ventures among the library bookshelves, including philosophical, biological, linguistic, historical, fictional, psychological, and religious. I elaborate:<\/p>\n
I have an armchair[1]<\/sup><\/a> philosopher\u2019s familiarity with the Western canon, having perused many of the canonical names between Thales (the \u201cfirst\u201d) and the early twentieth century. This gives me an appreciation for: those individual schools of thoughts; relativity of philosophical beliefs; the historicity of philosophy; the variegation of philosophical concerns and conduct.<\/p>\n I have a university graduate\u2019s familiarity with the generalities of biology, with a bias for its molecular signalling and developmental principles. This gives me an appreciation for the complexity of biological systems, including the methods of their conceptualization and study.<\/p>\n I have a sporadic interest in linguistics, beginning with Plato\u2019s Forms, that led me to Sapir and Whorf, and later to Chomsky, Pinker, and later to the Piraha language as an epitome of language differentials. This gives me an appreciation for the role of language<\/p>\n [1]<\/sup><\/a>At a younger age I read Einstein\u2019s An Introduction to Special and General Relativity<\/em>. Frustrated by my inability to understand the latter, I investigated further, learning about the Vienna circle, and thus the significance of Wittgenstein in schools of thoughts within those great minds. Deciding that if I understood what formed the basis for their disagreements would enlighten me as to how Einstein thought, I attempted to read a book on Wittgenstein. Failing to make it through the book\u2019s introduction, which mentioned Descartes, eventually led me to plan a study[I]<\/sup><\/a> of what philosophy\u2019s led to Descartes and thence to Wittgenstein. Thus I started with Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em>, later backtracking to learn of the Pre-Socratics, through the Socratics (incl. Plato and his schools, Aristotle, the Stoics, and some of the lesser knowns), I picked at the Latins, fast-forwarded through the darkness of the Dark Ages, was disappointed by Scholastics, picked at the Muslim renaissance, marvelled at the impact of the Lacoon, collecting Machiavelli along the way, began the age of reason (with Descartes again), was reinvigorated by Spinoza, accumulated a useful medley that funnelled into Kant, pursued and judged his successors, leap-frogging until I reached Bentano and Husserl, falling into Nietzsche, and finally only reading enough Wittgenstein to know that I agreed in the most part. It is ironic that I never made a full study of Wittgenstein\u2019s words since they inspired me to write what I thought about the nature of reality. The conclusions, which are not<\/em> the subject of these writings, were (to state obtusely) that reality is perceived by a sort of metaphorical idealism.<\/p>\n [I]<\/sup><\/a> See Shai’s “Philosophy Readings Through Time<\/a>” where he lists the philosophy books he has read<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My motivation to express and communicate my thoughts on these things is curtailed on one side by an awareness of the immensity of my ignorance, and on the other side by my fear that I have no right to promote such substantial claims given my absent credentials. What follows is successful if it convinces the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[159,276,232,154],"tags":[],"metadata":[171,158,307,305],"class_list":["post-954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-autobiography","category-curriculum-vitae","category-google-drive","metadata-editors-footnotes","metadata-shai_footnotes","metadata-stage-5-consolidation","metadata-stages-phases"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1004,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/12\/19\/hegel-dialectical-behavioural-therapy-and-kabbalah\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":0},"title":"Hegel, Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, and Kabbalah","author":"Pala","date":"December 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Begin by an illustration of Kant\u2019s synthesis of empiricism and idealism. Continue by illustrating Hegel\u2019s using synthesis to bootstrap human consciousness to itself Pause to explain the phenotype of BPD[I] esp black\/white thinking. Pause to describe the rise of cog-behavioural therapies and their rise out of mindfulness. Describe the addition\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/01\/17\/power-hungry-tng\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":1},"title":"Power Hungry (TNG)","author":"pastfarpoint","date":"January 17, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Power Hungry by Howard Weinstein is the sixth numbered TNG novel. The plot involves the Enterprise being sent on a relief mission, bringing food and equipment, to a candidate Federation planet. The planet, Thiopia, has undergone until recently rapid development due to a trading agreement with Nuarans, which has resulted\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Detail from \"Power Hungry\" cover","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/01\/power_hungry_cropped.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1714,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2010\/11\/22\/a-meditation-on-platos-ion-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":2},"title":"A meditation on Plato’s Ion","author":"Pala","date":"November 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Plato was an\u00a0Ancient Greek philosopher\u00a0who lived around 2400 years ago in\u00a0Athens. Almost all of Plato's surviving writings are dialogues (philosophical plays).\u00a0Ion\u00a0is a dialogue between Socrates (Plato's teacher) and Ion, a celebrated performer of poetry. Although Plato is always interesting, it is often hard to find a positive lesson that can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1002,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2016\/12\/31\/fixing-a-broken-crown\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":3},"title":"Fixing a Broken Crown","author":"Pala","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Fixing a few fractures: BROKEN If look at any obsessive dedication, especially where prone to escapism the following is apparent (simplified): The 10III, qua ta\u2019anug, is not seen properly, and this is due to a few overlapping expressions (ratzon l\u2019ratzon) of that hidden agenda. One damaged 10II seems to be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1210,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2012\/04\/24\/twilight-as-directed-by-wes-anderson\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":4},"title":"Twilight as Directed by Wes Anderson","author":"Pala","date":"April 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Editorial notes: One of Shai\u2019s unique talents was writing stories in the style of famous authors. In the story below, retrieved from his Google Drive, he convincingly imitates a vampire genre, Twilight-like movie script, as if it were directed by Wes Anderson. Scene 1: A fixed camera shows the following:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2861,"url":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/2014\/05\/15\/kants-third-critique\/","url_meta":{"origin":954,"position":5},"title":"Kant’s Third Critique","author":"Pala","date":"May 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Contents: Some scribblings Per IEP article. Per SEP article. Per NDPR: The Kantian Sublime and the Revelation of Freedom. Some Scribblings... It's not a priori obvious why Kant should concern himself with beauty, especially not with the regard and the significance with which he describes it within his overall architectonic.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All Posts"","block_context":{"text":"All Posts","link":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/all-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/sadotI-apology","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=954"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/954\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=954"},{"taxonomy":"metadata","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetravellerslastjourney.com\/shai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/metadata?post=954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}