Author Archives: Abigail
Women Who Want To Kill Themselves
Some years ago, when I was still working full time as a philosophy professor, I got a late-afternoon call from E.S. He was a senior colleague and good friend. We’d exchanged just a few words when he remarked, with concern, … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, 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, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a daughter’s suicide, academic colleagues, academic friends, arguing a friend out of suicide, career setback, classic suicidal motivation, collegial friends, dishonor and Iberian culture, dishonor and suicide, feminist objections to “honor”, honor and modernity, honor as premodern concept, honor for men vs honor for women, impressing a romantic partner, loss of honor, loss of honor for men vs loss of honor for women, lost honor and suicide, official feminism and women’s reality, payback for the seducer, philosophical defense of “honor”, philosophical friends, philosophical objections to “honor”, philosophy professor, planning suicide, professional defeat, professional setback, psychological objections to “honor”, reasons for suicide, reasons women kill themselves, responding to a friend in crisis, restoring honor, romance and status, romantic eligibility, romantic setback, saving a friend at the cost of losing her, seducer, seducer as pretended supporter, seducer in self-help group, seduction and abuse of power, seduction and wanting to die, setbacks in work and romance, suicidal woman, suicide, suicide aftermath, suicide and counterargument, suicide and losing face, suicide and loss of honor, suicide and professional setback, suicide and tarnished image, suicide threat, taking advantage of a woman, taking advantage of vulnerability, taking threats seriously, talking a friend out of suicide, vulnerability and the seducer, witnessing a friend’s defeat, worthiness for romance
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Battle Wounds
The post-October 8th, 2023 outbreak of Jew-hatred in academe continues to open psychic wounds. As a battle-tested veteran of many combats (for example the one pictured above), this phenomenon of psychic wounds is itself startling to me. Let me give … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, 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, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, academic antisemitism, academic combat veteran, academic expediency, academic honor, academic politics, academic power struggle, academic reprisal, academic resentment, academic survival, anti-Israel cartoon, anti-Israel vigil holders, anti-whistleblower reprisal, Athens and Israel, Athens vs Israel, emotional survival, exhibit with anti-Israel cartoon, fashionable antisemitism, God as Witness, God in history, God on the timeline, impartial truth in academe, it’s not personal, Jewish assignment in history, Jewish identity, Jewish identity battles, Jewish psychic wounds, Jewish role in history, new antisemitism, Oct 8 2023, ousting a predator, Phyllis Chesler, Plato’s academy, predator in a religion, predator in a safe space, predator in the temple, Presbyterians against Israel, Presbyterians and the rabbi, psychic wounds, psychological survival, Reform Judaism, Reform temple, restoring one’s honor, rolling with the punches, scaring Jewish shopkeepers, search for truth, survival with no hard feelings, truth in academe, union-backed grievance, universities and Oct 7, universities vs Jews, whistleblower
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Civilization and Me
There seems to be something at the heart of historical existence that’s probably incurable. It gets the name of envy or sibling rivalry. And it’s the insurmountable fear that God might love my brother or sister more than God loves … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, 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, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abrahamic religions, Athens and Jerusalem, Biblical narrative, Cain and Abel, conflict across generations, cultural conflict, envy, envy in human nature, Ethics, foundations of Western thought, hatred, historical conflict, history of antisemitism, human nature, Jewish identity, Matthew Arnold, moral philosophy, philosophy of religion, Plato, religion and culture, roots of antisemitism, sibling rivalry, sibling rivalry in the Bible, The Academy, truth and history, Western Civilization, why are Jews hated
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On Being Read | Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
A philosophical work — especially one drawn from a life — is never simply understood. It is received and interpreted through the concerns of the reader. And in a careful reading, one may come to see not only what was intended, but also something … Continue reading
Posted in appreciation, authenticity, book reviews, books, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, contemplation, memoir, modern women, philosophy, public intellectual, reading, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", book review
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How Odd, of God
It happened one time that philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe said to her friend Ludwig Wittgenstein (the philosopher whose Philosophical Investigations she later translated), “What people have had such a history as the Jews!” I think they were in Vienna at the … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, 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, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Anscombe on Wittgenstein: eds Berkman and Teichmann (2025), antisemitism’s deepest causes, being Jewish as an assignment, bigotry among nice people, British philosophers, Chabad, Chabad and Friday night guests, Chabad and guests, Chabad dinner conversation, Chabad Friday night, Chabad rabbi, Chabad rabbinical couple, chasidic dress code, dinner conversation, Elizabeth Anscombe, emotional safety for girls, emotional safety of chasidic girls, empathy as enabler, evil explained away, Friday night dinner, Friday night prayers in Hebrew, healthy family life, Jewish history, Jews in Vienna, lessons of antisemitism, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, making fun of antisemites, modernity and authenticity, modernity and personal risk, modernity and skepticism, modernity vs orthodoxy, moral realism, Orthodox families, Orthodox Jewish families, Orthodox Jewish family life, Orthodox Jewish marriage and children, Orthodox Jews and authenticity, Orthodox ritual handwashing, orthodoxy and deep certainties, orthodoxy and psychological protection, philosophical discussion, recognizing evil, Reform Judaism, specialization in spirituality, spiritual protection, the Wittgensteins in Nazi Vienna, Torah Study, Torah study and liberalism, unique Jewish history, uniqueness of Jewish suffering, well-adjusted families, Wittgenstein, Wittgenstein and Jewish history, Wittgenstein and WWII, Wittgenstein’s Jewish origin, Wittgenstein’s Viennese family
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