Narrator issues

In hiring someone to do a narration of JEWISH philosophers, I would have brought in someone who could pronounce German well. Lenard does not and it's a distraction. He uses two different pronunciations for Wittgenstein - "ei" in German is pronounced like English "i" - and the name is correctly pronounced Vit-gen-stine (W has a V sound). While I get that many do get that wrong and make the "ee" sound to have a narrator go back and forth between the two is just sloppy.

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Good, but Not Great

This podcast showed great promise: a focus on 3 great Jewish philosophers of the 20th century and the offer to show how their teaching is a guide to life.

The identification of their philosophical beliefs was sound. The discussion of their ethics at the core was solid.

What was missing was a clear and specific account of how their philosophy can serve as a guide to life. The author should have dug deeper, beneath the surface ideas. In Levinas’ case, an exposition of some of his teachings in his Talmudic studies would have helped immensely. In Buber’s case, a dive into his letters or the Hasidic wisdom he prized would have yielded very helpful particulars.

Bottom line: the promise of the lectures was grand and could have been fulfilled to our great benefit. Sadly, we only got generalities, which are important, yes. But so much more was available and not revealed.

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A compelling introduction to a few Jewish thinkers

I found this worth a second listen and I will likely return to it again. A background in philosophy was definitely helpful to comprehend the material. Putnam is a seminal Analytic philosopher and I was surprised to find him writing on a religious subject. The spiritual aspect of life that can make it truly meaningful, which early Wittgenstein relegated to being left unsaid, Putnam discusses through the lens of three twentieth century Jewish philosophers and a spritz of Wittgenstein. He maintains a bit of his skepticism for capital T Truth, but well articulates how living an others directed life which ritual and irreducible aspects of spirituality can make life rich with meaning. Levinas, whom he discusses, has been added to my growing list of must reads. A philosophy that starts with the ethic of presenting all we are to those before us in phenomenalogical language sounds, to me, quite exhilarating and humanizing. Putnam succeeded in stirring my interest to investigate the other thinkers.

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