Can you recommend such things to other people considered learned? (And: is there an important distinction between “assur” and “forbidden”? A little googling suggests that “assur” is less emphatic somehow; is that right?)
Almost certainly I can. But right now I’m in high school, so I don’t know that many people who qualify.
Um… assur means you can’t do it. It’s not less severe than “forbidden”, I don’t think. It literally means “bound”. It’s important to note that it doesn’t mean something’s morally wrong, but in this case, independent of the prohibition (non-literal translation of the noun form, issur) the act of reading foreign philosophy without knowledge of the corresponding arguments in one’s own can cause stupid questions, not smart ones, and is considered to be wrong, not just forbidden (in my father’s circles, anyhow).
I commend you for your self-control in not telling other people about these issues. I’d also add that for many people who aren’t the intellectual type, you’d be doing them a major disservice by exposing them to arguments that can easily cause them massive psychological stress issues. As I know from personal experience with people who that happened to.
It might be worth thinking about switching to a different high school where there are more intellectual-type people around. Also, if you go to Yeshiva University for college you’ll find plenty of smart people, both staff and students, who are quite educated in foreign philosophies.
Can you recommend such things to other people considered learned? (And: is there an important distinction between “assur” and “forbidden”? A little googling suggests that “assur” is less emphatic somehow; is that right?)
Yup, inexcusably sloppy of me. Thanks.
Almost certainly I can. But right now I’m in high school, so I don’t know that many people who qualify.
Um… assur means you can’t do it. It’s not less severe than “forbidden”, I don’t think. It literally means “bound”. It’s important to note that it doesn’t mean something’s morally wrong, but in this case, independent of the prohibition (non-literal translation of the noun form, issur) the act of reading foreign philosophy without knowledge of the corresponding arguments in one’s own can cause stupid questions, not smart ones, and is considered to be wrong, not just forbidden (in my father’s circles, anyhow).
I commend you for your self-control in not telling other people about these issues. I’d also add that for many people who aren’t the intellectual type, you’d be doing them a major disservice by exposing them to arguments that can easily cause them massive psychological stress issues. As I know from personal experience with people who that happened to.
It might be worth thinking about switching to a different high school where there are more intellectual-type people around. Also, if you go to Yeshiva University for college you’ll find plenty of smart people, both staff and students, who are quite educated in foreign philosophies.