ABSTRACT
Some find philosophy in a koan or a mandala. Others have trouble recognizing it out of uniform, without a syllogistic suit on, or the numbered garb of the analytic exercise yard. But even Aristotle rarely wore his syllogistic dress whites. And Plato hardly found it necessary to number the arguments tested by his Socrates in the theater of the mind-or to bar myth from the halls of reason. Still, it’s widely supposed that scripture simply announces its dicta and imposes its beliefs and practices. Rhyme is scant in the Torah, and reason must be too: To capture the hearts of the loyal and credulous, piety must bypass their heads, lest its pronouncements and prescriptions fall to critique, being beyond reason’s reach, or beneath its notice.
