{"id":64924,"date":"2019-10-29T17:00:23","date_gmt":"2019-10-29T15:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=64924"},"modified":"2023-05-24T13:54:50","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T10:54:50","slug":"critical-arguments-are-they-sophistry-or-sophistication","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/critical-arguments-are-they-sophistry-or-sophistication\/","title":{"rendered":"Critical Arguments: Are They Sophistry &#8211; Or Sophistication?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-content\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[281],"tags":[876,940,752,388,372],"acf":{"old_id":"64924","type":"no","iframe":"","writer":64460,"related_cahpter":"339","type_929":"2","show_author_image":false,"old_create_date":"","old_url":"","post_main_content":{"description":"Sometimes a judge needs to be able to see dark as light, light as dark","content":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fifth chapter of Isaiah, which begins with a parable comparing Israel to a vineyard which, despite the farmer\u2019s hard labor, has produced only inedible fruit, contains a striking bill of charges against Israelite society. Some of these are unsurprising: the people is condemned for economic injustice, for hedonism, and for religious indifference.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But among these charges there is one which is less typical: intellectual dishonesty \u2014 or, perhaps better-put, over-cleverness. Isaiah speaks of \u201cthose who call evil good and good evil; who present darkness as light and light as darkness; who present bitter as sweet and sweet as bitter,\u201d who are \u201cso wise \u2014 in their own opinion; so clever\u2014 in their own judgement\u201d (vv. 20-21). The particular failing which the prophet seems to be condemning here is the use of reason without regard for the truth. This indictment is, interestingly enough, rather reminiscent of Greek sentiments, more or less contemporary with Isaiah, about the Sophists \u2014 a class of professional teachers of argumentation who were believed to care little for the truth of their cases. Socrates himself, who was viewed as a Sophist by many in the Athens of his time, was condemned in part for his habit of \u201cmaking the weaker argument the stronger.\u201d There is indeed something troubling about the ability of a finely-honed intelligence to upend what we take for granted, even to the point of convincing\u00a0 us that dark is light. If nothing were safe from the corrosive powers of critique, how could we live?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet, despite the hostility which Isaiah shows towards sophistry, there are places in Jewish tradition which recognize the value of precisely the kind of intelligence which is here condemned. In particular, there is a statement by Rav in the Babylonian Talmud, that in order to qualify for the high court, one must be able to produce a valid argument that a <em>sheretz<\/em> (a \u201ccreeping animal\u201d which is a major source of impurity in Biblical law) is in fact pure. In Rabbinic parlance, this rather like proving darkness to be light!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How are we to understand the Rabbinic valorization of the very cleverness which Isaiah censures? Perhaps we can find a clue in returning to the context in which the charge appears in Isaiah\u2019s prophecy. Intelligence, by itself, is neutral \u2014 it can be constructive or corrosive. In order to evaluate it, we need to ask: what kind of life does the clever person have? In what kind of society does she live? Is it one of social justice, of restrained consumption, of religious sincerity \u2014 or of their opposites? Virtues and vices tend to reinforce one another. In a state of general corruption, we might do well to be skeptical of the powers of intelligence; in a virtuous society, the ability to purify a <em>sheretz<\/em> can be put to a holy use.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","image":{"ID":64925,"id":64925,"title":"is5-light-dark2","filename":"is5-light-dark2.jpg","filesize":0,"url":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2.jpg","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/critical-arguments-are-they-sophistry-or-sophistication\/is5-light-dark2\/","alt":"","author":"7","description":"","caption":"","name":"is5-light-dark2","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":64924,"date":"2019-10-29 15:00:10","modified":"2019-10-29 15:00:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1500,"height":1125,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-150x150.jpg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-300x225.jpg","medium-width":300,"medium-height":225,"medium_large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-768x576.jpg","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":576,"large":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-1024x768.jpg","large-width":1024,"large-height":768,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2.jpg","1536x1536-width":1500,"1536x1536-height":1125,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2.jpg","2048x2048-width":1500,"2048x2048-height":1125,"post_full_size":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-1200x900.jpg","post_full_size-width":1200,"post_full_size-height":900,"home_baner":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/is5-light-dark2-560x420.jpg","home_baner-width":560,"home_baner-height":420}},"embedded_video":"","video_duration":"","show_fb_comments":true,"credit_media":""},"tile":{"top_caption":"","main_caption":"Critical Arguments: Are They Sophistry - 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