Monthly Archives: July 2020

“What Are We Really Arguing About Now?”

Posted on July 28, 2020 by Abigail

“What Are We Really Arguing About Now?” My recent columns were about “argument” in the philosopher’s sense of reasoning. Thinking they might find them of special interest, I’ve sent the columns to philosopher friends. And was pleased, but not surprised, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, 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 of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Albert Camus, arguing to win, argument, argument from authority, argument from design, argument from observation, bad arguments, Bloomsbury group, Cheryl Misak’s Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers, conscious assumptions, conscious reasons, de Beauvoir’s Paris, drama of argument, famous philosophers, folk theology, forcing the argument, Frank Ramsey, Freud, Freud’s Vienna, global citizens, global culture, globalization, Gnosticism, human imperfection, human incompleteness, imperfect people, inspiration, intuitions, life purposes, life-defining argument, life-shaping argument, manipulative argument, necessary imperfections, opinion shapers, philosopher friends, philosophic argument, philosophic life world, realm of argument, reason, reasoning, rejecting the world, resisting the human condition, rhetorical tricks, Socrates in Athens, Stephen Toulmin’s and Allan Janick’s Wittgenstein’s Vienna, tales of argument, teleological argument, Tennessee farmers, the human condition, the perfect is the enemy of the good, unconscious assumptions, unstated subtexts, utopian ideals, verbal victories, Wittgenstein, world citizens, world city, world culture, world of ideas | Leave a comment

For Love of the Argument

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Abigail

For Love of the Argument I first met Bryan Magee when he was visiting Sidney University’s Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy. My then husband was teaching there and I had been granted a nice little niche as “Research Affiliate.” … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Fashion, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Journalism, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Where Theory Meets Chalk Dust Flies", Analytic philosophy, Anglo-American philosophers, Anthony Quinton, Aussie hospitality, Australian Materialist, B. F. Skinner, bad arguments, BBC television series, blackboard of Mitchell Faulk, blackboards of mathematicians, Bryan Magee, Bryan Magee’s Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, bushwalk, civil status of a contradiction, conceptual contests, David M. Armstrong, Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, Down Under, early and late Wittgenstein, fish or fowl, fly out of fly bottle, forms of life, good arguments, hatred of human beings, hatred of reason, hospitality blues, innate syntax, inner space, Iris Murdoch, Jessica Wynne, language games, life of argument, life of reason, Linguistic Behaviorism, Mathematician Mitchell Faulk, meaningful sentence, Member of Parliament, metaphysical claims, misology and misanthropy, Noam Chomsky, novelist and philosopher, philosophical dialogues, philosophical fashions, Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein, Philosophical Materialism, philosophical naturalism, philosophical views, photo survey, picture theory of meaning, Plato, Plato's Phaedo, realm of reason, research affiliate, rush to judgement, Sidney University, Socrates, stimulus-response model, talents in collision, Trinity College Oxford, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, woman novelist, woman philosopher, worldly man | Leave a comment

The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Argument

Posted on July 14, 2020 by Abigail

The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Argument Arguing, in the philosophical sense, doesn’t mean quarreling. The term “argument” designates one or more statements, each capable of being true or false, which present the basis for a final statement called the conclusion. … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, 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, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged actual human encounters, ad hominem fallacy, American Philosophical Association, analyzing argument situations, analyzing arguments, angry women, another woman’s marriage, answering with silence, anti-semitism, argument situations, argument stratagems, at a loss, bad argument, basis for knowledge, blindsided, body language, Christina Hoff Sommers, coded anti-Semitism, collegial friendship, collegial taboos, conclusion, contemporary feminism, covert aggression, covert anti-Semitism, criteria, critic of feminism, defenseless, false reasons, female friendships, feminine reasoning, feminist argument, feminist audience, feminist boundaries, feminist philosophers, fielding insults, flinging an epithet, friendship breakup, George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, guilt tripping, how to argue, informal logic, insulting your friend’s wife, intellectual boundaries, intellectual space, intelligent woman, irrelevant reasons, Jerry L. Martin, killing time, knowing better, linguistic consensus, loaded question, Logic, logic lessons, losing an argument, male combatant, male friendship, male quarrels, male/female combatants, man to man combat, masculine reasoning, my friend’s husband, neuropathy treatments, offending a wife, old friends, passive-aggressive insults, premise, preserving friendship, preserving social protocol, propositions, proving manhood, real life argument, real life argument context, reasoning, reasons to believe, responding to insults, self-respect, shared objectives, smiling insult, social insult, social self-respect, sound argument, speechless, statements, supporting an argument, term of art, textbook argument, the art of argument, theory of argument, unstated issues, valid argument, verbal counter-attack, virgin territory, women friends | 2 Comments

Book Matters

Posted on July 7, 2020 by Abigail

Book Matters Signatures: Literary Encounters of a Lifetime by David Pryce-Jones I rode in the limousine with David Pryce-Jones and other speakers going to the conference titled “Is It 1938 Again?” held at Queens College of The City University of … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, books | 2 Comments

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Monthly Archives: July 2020

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