Arrangement
- Personal projects and notes
- Links to interesting things
- ...
I was going to make this like a semi-professional page, but there are already plenty of job search Web sites. I'd rather list things that are interesting to me and perhaps helpful to you.
I promised somebody I'd include this. It's pretty identifying but I think it's a nice explanation of how to reconcile philosophical determinism with moral accountability - even if it is expressed in the language of medieval metaphysics. See Ibn Ezra's commentary on the hardening of Pharaoh's heart in the familiar bible narrative: Ibn_Ezra.txt
This quote is from the RaMChaL (Moshe Chaim Luzzatto), in his "Essay on Fundamentals", chapter 3.
The essence of all creation is that the Creator, may He be blessed, wanted to create man, such that he would cling to Him, may He be blessed, and enjoy the true good. And this would be by there being two paths before him - the path of good and the path of evil - and that he would have the ability to choose which one of them he wants. And when, from his intellect and from his will, he would choose good and reject evil, he would then receive the true eternal good. However all the other creatures were only created because the Supernal Wisdom saw the need for them in order for the world to be complete, such that man be found in it in the manner that we have stated and he be able to serve God, may He be blessed, to receive the true good through it. Nevertheless the need for the world of all the creatures is not known to us. Yet we have had it transmitted to us from the Sages, may their memory be blessed, that man is the essence of all, that all the other creatures were created for him and that the essence of man's creation is that he merit the true good. However, the Supernal Wisdom saw fit that in order for them to attain this true good, it would be fit at first for them to be tested and to overcome the test. And behold for this reason, He created a world for him in which there would be room for him to be tested. This means that there would [be] the existence of evil in [the world], such that he could reject evil and choose good.