73 The Philosophers' Convention

Right after Succoth the annual convention of 'The New Society for Israeli Philosophy' took place at Tel Aviv University. I spent many years at that university and have two degrees that I received there. Partly due to nostalgia as well as the desire to keep up with present day philosophical thought I took the time and went to the convention. I was glad that the opening address was delivered by my teacher that supervise my thesis for master's degree in philosophy, the honorable Ben-Ami Sharfstein, winner of the 'Israel Prize' of Philosophy in 2005.

Here he is in the picture, eighty nine years old and still more creative and wiser than many of his young colleagues. He is standing on the stage of Gilman Auditorium 144, where I heard the introductory philosophy lectures as a freshman, many years ago. What he says is simple. He urges philosophers younger than himself not to shut themselves off from the world or from non-philosophical research methods, to be receptive to every idea and to refrain from dogmatic conclusions. He urges them to be skeptics – even concerning their own conclusions.

I spent about half a day at the convention and skipped from one lecture to another. I wanted to get an impression of the discussions on various subjects. I came across a room in which there were lectures on contemporary French philosophy. As one who was educated in the spirit of analytical philosophy (it was in fashion at that time) and as a person whose inclination is towards what is clear and logical, I am very skeptical about the complicated linguistic constructions and the intentional obscurantism of modern French philosophy. What I heard at the convention did not lessen these reservations. I left the room quickly, before the lecture of my former fellow–student who is now amongst the leaders of that sect, whose discourse is an impossible tangle of winding, indistinct and closed language.

Afterwards I heard a few more lectures on various subjects. In one of them a young philosopher attempted to test morals with logical means, but his line of reasoning came to a halt after one logical step and he became completely entangled before he managed to contend even one interesting argument. On my way back home I thought about that and concluded that it would have been better if the young colleagues had listened more carefully to the remarks of the old philosopher. One of the tests of clear thinking is the ability to explain it to the common man, as Socrates did in Athens' Agora. Philosophy that cannot be expressed in clear, simple, understandable language runs the danger of losing contact with reality and becomes tied up in disconcerting inner contradictions.