Monthly Archives: February 2018

Collegiality

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Abigail

Collegiality It’s one of the most precious chances life offers: to be a team player, a cooperator in a venture, a fellow worker in a joint work. Nothing could be more fun than this sharing of skilled seriousness. Student … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic colleagues, academic quarrels, allies, anguish of parents, broken friendship, casing the target, children in peril, colleagues, cooperating, deaths of parents, defamatory fictions, determined enemy, divorces, enjoying differences, fellow worker, frightening diagosis, having fun, heartbreak, intellectual struggles, irreparable quarrels, joint work, knowing where to strike, longterm friends, lost friendship, malevolent intentions, objective roles, objective rules, personal struggles, philosophical colleagues, righteous combat, rites of passage, rules of the game, search for truth, senior colleague, shared quest, shared skills, state of grace, striking the vulnerable, student life, targeting a weakness, volleyball, weddings, work projects, young adulthood | Leave a comment

A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Abigail

A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition The author’s advance copy of my expanded second edition of A Good Look at Evil, arrived Friday. The look of it is entirely gorgeous. To have such endorsements, from opinion-shapers of recognized importance … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 20th century culture, A. E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Adam Kirsch, advance copy, analytic philosophers, ancient Greeks, arête, Aristotle, at the mercy of appetite, attractive lies, author's aims, authority figures, be the best that you can be, Biblical narrative, blurbs, book cover, book publication, celebrity, champion athlete, climbing the mountain, Columbia class of 1925, common culture, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural ancestors, cultural forebearers, cunning of evil, dialogue, Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen", elegiac poem, endorsements, evil's reality, excellence, facing facts, fame, father/daughter relationship, feminist activists, filial piety, flawless performance, force of circumstance, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, Gail Godwin, gifted novelist, glory, going wrong, hazards of life, Henry M. Rosenthal, ignorance, inflated egos, inter-ethnic conversation, interdenominational conversation, international conversation, jacket copy, life achievement, life aims, life goals, life of pleasure, literary critics, literary talent, manipulative purposes, missing your moment, misuse of words, moral vision, narrow minds, narrowness, noble aims, nonwestern cultures, Olympic athlete, opinion shapers, pagan culture, peak performance, Phyllis Chesler, pleasure, power of evil, public disfavor, public favor, public intellectuals, pursuit of pleasure, reality checks, revised edition, seizing your moment, snares of pleasure, The Bible, The class genius, the longest conversation, The Olympics, the struggle with evil, the vices, top of one's game, true lies, uncultivated mind, virtue, Western culture, William Lycan, winning the match, winning the race, wrong intentions, x-ray vision | Leave a comment

The Eternal Feminine

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Abigail

The Eternal Feminine Many years ago – it was our last evening in Paris – the first boy I loved told me that I had become, for him, “the eternal feminine.” Later I learned that his reference to Goethe’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Childhood, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, Mysticism, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "normal" woman, "normal" woman's life, 586 BC, Abraham and Sarah, Adam and Eve, Arch of Titus, biblical couples, boy/girl stuff, couples therapy, covenant renewal, Dara Horn's Eternal Life: A Novel, deathless heroine, debris of history, detritus of history, enthralling tale, eros of history, essence of history, eternal life, eternal people, evenings in Paris, false transcendence, feminist formulas, first love, First Temple, French seduction, God as Witness, Goethe's Faust, having children, heroine, honeymoon in Rome, idiosyncratic hermeneutics, immortal heroine, imprinting, Jacob and Rachel, Jewish continuity, Jewish girl, Jewish relation to time, Jewish survival, Jewish time, Jewish womanhood, John Keats' "Ode to a Nightingale", living through it, living too long, love story, lovers, marital difficulties, marriageable girl, Mount Sinai, Mowgli, newly married, outlasting enemies, outliving one's children, outliving one's husband, outliving one's world, Outliving one’s time, Roman antiquities, Roman conquest, Romance, romantic difficulties, romantic novels, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, seductive formulas, sharing fate, significant other, surviving genocide, taking romance seriously, The Covenant, the eternal feminine, the generations, the human generations, the Jewish essence, the past as present, the romantic essence, the Ur-couples, Ur-stories, wild child, woman's life | 2 Comments

So Sue Me

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Abigail

So Sue Me Although writing this column is enlightening for me, the author, and I hope for you my much-loved readers — the elect, the favored few, the discerning ones – tonight I simply can’t. I’m all out of moxie. … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged airport wheelchairs, alternative medicine, angelic messengers, angels unawares, author/reader relation, blood circulation, car country, Christian prayer, circulatory disorder, coincidence, curing styes, discerning readers, divine coincidence, divine outreach, elect readers, elite readers, Enlightenment, evangelical Christians, exhaustion, favored few, feeling empty, feeling spent, flies, Gérard Philipe, gluten-free, healing, helluva trip, holistic medicine, home exercise, hopefulness, idiopathic peripheral neuropathy, indelible stains, Jewish prayer, Kaput, locomotive atrophy, Loma Linda Hospital, mainstream medical medicine, medical innovation, medical research, Michelle Morgan, Ms., neural atrophy, neuro-vascular condition, neurologists, neuropathy, neuropathy at Loma Linda, new neuropathy treatment, old French movies, Parkinson's, past life therapy, persistence, physical therapy, plague of flies, powerful mantra, prayer for sale, pseudo-cures, psychic healer, purported cures, quackery, skilled dry cleaners, synchronicity, top-rated neurologists, uphill climbs, walking incapacity, Western medicine, writing a column | Leave a comment

Monthly Archives: February 2018

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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