This is the talk I gave for the Adult Education program at Temple Judea of Bucks County on April 14th. The video was taken by Jerry, my husband, from his smartphone.
It includes the Q and A, which shows a very engaged and thoughtful audience. The video starts a little after my talk did. I’d just been explaining the thesis of A Good Look at Evil, which is that we live nonfiction stories, and evil-doers try to spoil our stories. To explain what I mean by “story,” I start with a Biblical illustration, the Joseph story from the Book of Genesis. Then I’ll go on to give examples from my own life.
Abigail Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of CUNY. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now available in an expanded, revised second edition and as an audiobook. Its thesis is that good people try to live out their stories while evil people aim to mess up good people’s stories.
Her next book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, forthcoming and illustrated, provides multiple illustrations from her own life. She writes a weekly column for her blog, “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column” (www.dearabbie-nonadvice.com) where she explains why women's lives are highly interesting. She’s the editor of the posthumously published Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by her father, Henry M. Rosenthal. Some of her articles can be accessed at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin .
She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
Dear Abigail, I was so sorry to have missed your talk, but am so happy I got to hear the talk through this video. I am truly inspired by your experiences, and appreciate your thoughtful words that have me pondering many things! All the best!
How kind of you to send this response Jerel. I’m delighted you could “attend” via video after all! Only sorry you were not there to share the ponderings in the Q & A.
"I would like to open this site for conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. I can be wrong as often as right, so specific advice will be avoided. What will be sought is light on how best to frame the situation of women, considered as a highly interesting problematic. What kind of hand have we been dealt, as women, and how can we best play it?
Comments are warmly encouraged on any post at any point."
Dear Abigail, I was so sorry to have missed your talk, but am so happy I got to hear the talk through this video. I am truly inspired by your experiences, and appreciate your thoughtful words that have me pondering many things! All the best!
How kind of you to send this response Jerel. I’m delighted you could “attend” via video after all! Only sorry you were not there to share the ponderings in the Q & A.