[Avodah] Rav Sharki on university students

[Micha Berger via Avodah]

On Thu, May 05, 2016 at 07:50:01AM -0400, Akiva Miller via Avodah wrote:
: I would respectfully offer a different opinion. I am not trying to change
: anyone's mind on this -- after all, Pirkei Avos puts these topics
: categorically outside our understanding -- but if anyone *wants* their mind
: to be changed, perhaps my ideas will be helpful.

I am not in your target audience, as I am happy with my current answer
and thus probably too closed minded on this question to be influenced,
but...

: RMB's reisha is full of mussar. It focuses on a person's mind. Is he
: free-willed, or is he a robot? If there's no path to choosing evil, then
: whatever one does is automatically good by default. Such goodness is not
: the sort of good that builds character. It is a worthless good, and hence
: not a real good at all...

Not my intent. Let me explain what I was trying to say from a different
direction.

What makes free will possible? The fact that we can think about thinking.
Bechira chofshi and being aware of one's own thoughts and feelings (or a
subset of them) go hand-in-hand. When we think about and make decisions
based on that metacognizent "inputs" we are able to change how we think
and truly exercise BC.

I think this underlize REED's concept of a nequdas habechirah. It is
only at the "battlefront" between two warring desires/drives that BC
comes into play because it is only there that the decision happens slow
even to occur consciously.

You might recall that when we discussed tza'ar baalei chaim (in at least
2 iterations), I suggested that while animals feel pain, they have no
"I" about which they could think "I am in pain". Pain, but without a
critical element that turns it into true suffering. I gave a neurological
argument -- animals lack the part of prefrontal cortext we use to do
metacognizance, so why assume they can? Maybe when it comes to animals,
the Behaviorists are right.

But I also made a hashkafic argument. If a thinking being could be aware
of the thinking itself, and think about thinking, it would have free
will. Since only people have BC, which in the opinion of many (including
the Meshekh Chokhmah) is that very tzelem E-lokim, they can't be self-aware
of their thought. Pain as a stimulus away from something, but not
"Oy am I in pain!" of true suffering on a human level.

So I was making a philosophical point about the goodness. Not that it
lacks worth of purpose, but the ability to enjoy good and the ability
to make decisions go hand-in-hand.

Tir'u baTov!
-Micha

-- 
Micha Berger             Today is the 12th day, which is
micha at aishdas.org        1 week and 5 days in/toward the omer.
http://www.aishdas.org   Hod sheb'Gevurah: What aspect of judgment
Fax: (270) 514-1507                  forces the "judge" into submission?