[lit-ideas] Re: Hobbes's Proof
- From: Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 6 Apr 2011 21:21:34 EDT
In a message dated 4/6/2011 9:54:43 P.M., rpaul@xxxxxxxx quotes from
sources:
"According to Jewish tradition the Torah was dictated to Moses by God,
with the exception of the last eight verses of Deuteronomy which describe his
death."
Geary wrote on this:
"A book could be written on this. This is it."
-----
"The point to consider is who a Jewish tradition is. We need to name
names."
-----
"According to Mary"
I understand
"According to Mary and Peter"
---- "According to Jewish tradition" is more ... vague?
In the case of Hobbes, I would not count him as a "Jewish tradition", yet,
Hobbes was refuting "a Jewish tradition" (or thinking he was refuting).
According to a Jewish tradition,
"the Torah was dictated to Moses by God, with the exception of the last
eight verses of Deuteronomy which describe his [i.e. Moses's, not God's]
death."
-----
"The problem with," says Geary, "_dictate_" is that we don't _dictate_."
He is pointing to the ambiguity:
God dictated the Torah to Moses.
It may be pointed out that 'dictate' is ambiguous:
"This is not what I dictated," Smith says to Jones. "I said 'tomahto'; you
wrote 'tomayto'".
The evidence -- the only evidence we have -- is what is written, which was
apparently 'dictated'. So, there is the source-side to 'dictate' (God) and
the target-side to 'dictate' (Moses) ("He was dictated").
So:
"the Torah was dictated", according to, say Peter and Mary, but not Hobbes
(who first saw this) "to Moses by God, with the exception of the last eight
verses of Deuteronomy which describe [Moses's] death" -- which He (God?)
wrote himself (or hisself?). This sounds phlegmatic. He (God) must have
'dictated' it to somebody else.
A point about internal evidence could be made. Apaprently, those last eight
verses do indicate a change of style. But it's not like they are
_dialectically_ (in terms of dialect) different. And, again, the details on
Moses's
death we wouldn't really know how to check in terms of veridicness. People
are familiar with the _account_ of Moses's death, not with the real
_event_. And so on.
Speranza
------ It would be good to have Hobbes's actual argument on this.
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