Category Archives: Martyrdom

“Philosophy is Learning How to Die”

Posted on March 17, 2020 by Abigail

“Philosophy is Learning How to Die” Socrates said that about philosophy, in front of his grieving student/disciples, at the hour when he was to down the lethal hemlock served him by the jailer. Death was the sentence passed on him … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, books, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, 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, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged anger, angst, anxiety, apprentices in philosophy, Athenian jury, beliefs falsified, cleaning closets, con man, consolations of philosophy, corruption, costly victory, deep calls to deep, dropping baggage, existentialist categories, frustration, gastrointestinal distress, healing wounds, hemlock, hurt, hydrotherapy, inherited baggage, Inner Spa, interiority and exteriority, internalizing insult, keeping what you need, learning how to die, letting go, life as adventure, love of truth, love of wisdom, minimalism, nobility, one-room apartment, outrage, philosopher, philosophy as a preparation for death, philosophy as academic discipline, philosophy as way of life, philosophy students, psyche and soma, righteous combat, risks of philosophy, self-renewal, sex harasser, sexual predator, simplify simplify, Socrates, somatization, thownness, traveling light, undiscovered countries, violation | 2 Comments

The Personal Meets the Political

Posted on March 10, 2020 by Abigail

The Personal Meets the Political I’m still reading A Dangerous Liaison, the book by Carole Seymour-Jones, about the great twentieth-century power couple, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. In my previous blog on them, I focused on the inconsistency between … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged absolute certainty, absolute doubt, Albert Camus, Alfonse Dreyfus, anarchy and tyranny, Bianca Bienenfeld, bohemian freedom, Carole Seymour-Jones’ A Dangerous Liason, Claude Lanzmann’s The Patagonian Hare, communist party line, dazzling career, decadent Parisian intellectuals, defining the modern world, existentialist hero, existentialist morality, for-itself v in-itself, French intellectuals, French Resistance, Hegel’s phenomenology of spirit, Holocaust awareness, Holocaust survivors, intellectual careerism, intellectual power, intellectual PR, intellectual self-advertisement, Jean-Paul Sartre, Lanzmann’s Shoah, libertine Gnosticism, libertinism and despotism, living one’s philosophy, man/woman asymmetries, meaning of life, myths of French Resistance, Nazi genocide, occupied France, official story, opinion shaper, personal self-invention, philosophic inconsistency, philosophic life, post-modern skepticism, Power couple, private and public philosophy, rounding up Jews, seducing students, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, the Dreyfus Case, the personal is the political, yellow star | Leave a comment

A Remarkable Evening

Posted on February 4, 2020 by Abigail

A Remarkable Evening Jerry and I belong to a Christian/Jewish dialogue group that celebrated its 25th year last week, though we haven’t been in it that long. The discussion topic was not so celebratory: anti-semitism and how to destroy it. … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Academe, Action, Art of Living, Atheism, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, 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, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 18th-century rabbis, admitting guilt, American Jewish Committee, anniversary celebration, anti-semitism, anti-semitism and me, anti-zionist demonstrators, anti-zionist placards, BCCC/AJC, Bucks County Christian Coalition, cafeteria-style dinner, changing the subject, Christian blinders, Christian clubbiness, Christian/Jewish dialogue, curing anti-semitism, exclusivity, experiencing anti-semitism, forbidden topics, Holocaust, Holocaust photos, Honorary Counsel General, Krista Bard, l’esprit de l’escalier, Let go and let God, Lithuania, Lithuanian and Jewish heritage, Lithuanian diplomat, Lithuanian heroes, Lithuanian memories, miracle, national guilt, new antisemitism, power of prayer, protesters, public insults, Second World War, spiritual abyss, Talmudic eminence, The Lord’s Prayer, the right answer, the Vilna Gaon | Leave a comment

The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott

Posted on January 28, 2020 by Abigail

The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott “Coziness” is not a word in the highest repute. In the 17th century, when the philosophers called “modern” were allowing the new physics to define reality, the features they deemed objectively-out-there were measurable: like … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, scientism, 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, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 17th Century Philosophers, Alcott as nurse, becoming a writer, catering to fashion, coming-of-age novels, cultural ideals of womanhood, death of Beth, farther shore., father-daughter relation, fatherly love, fictional simplifications, filial piety, Frederick Douglas, Greta Gerwig, guardian angels, happy endings, hard-edged modern views, hearth and home, Henry David Thoreau, home life, homelikeness, hope and faith, ideals of girlhood, important thinkers, Julia Ward Howe, literary catering, living one’s talent, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s death, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Margaret Fuller, Marmee, Materialism, maternal protection, measurable reality, modern feeling, motherly love, Nathaniel Hawthorne, objectivity, parental guidance, personal fulfillment, physical reality, plain living and high thinking, processing influences, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relativism, repressing anger, sentimentality, size, subjectivity, the primary qualities, the secondary qualities, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist family, unsentimentality, velocity, weight | Leave a comment

Jews, Christians, and Jesus

Posted on January 7, 2020 by Abigail

Jews, Christians, and Jesus I’ve just finished a scholarly book whose conclusion left me head-spinningly dumbfounded. Since I’m supposed to be a philosophe by profession, I’m pretty used to scholarly books, bring some acquired insulation to the reading of them, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Medieval, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Reading, Religion, Roles, secular, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged ancient fratricide, anti-Judaism, anti-semitism, attraction to Jesus, “the Son of Man”, Babylonian exile, Bar Kochba, biblical history, biblical Israel, Christian/Jewish dialogue, Christian/Jewish parting of the ways, colloquial Hebrew, Council of Nicea, Daniel 7, Daniel Boyarin’s The Jewish Gospels: The Story of the Jewish Christ, defamation, Emmanuel Levinas, fratricidal history, Hebrew language revival, history of Christianity, inter-religious dialougue, intercession for sin, Isaiah 53, Israel reborn, Israelite continuities, Jack Miles’s God: A Biography, Jesus as divine, Jewish continuities, Jewish origin of Christianity, Jewish/Christian reconcilement, Jews and Christians, Jews and Jesus, legendary figure, literary Hebrew, messianic expectations, new anti-Semitism, Nicene Creed, professional philosopher, promised land, rabbinic Judaism, Rabbinic scholars, Rav Tsair, religious persecution, revelation and religion, scholarly book, Second Temple's destruction, Suffering Servant, Talmudist of stature, The Covenant, the forgiveness of sin, the historical Jesus, the Holocaust, the Jesus movement, the Second Exile, vicarious expiation, vilification | 1 Comment

The Worse, the Better?

Posted on October 29, 2019 by Abigail

The Worse, the Better? In the 1930’s a political strategy known as “worsism” was in fashion. Worsists believed that the worse, the better! This meant, the more desperate people became, the closer we got to the revolution that would bring … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Martyrdom, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, slave, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged above the battle, all hat and no cattle, American Indian fighting, anti-Israelism, anti-semitism, Arapahoe, Arendt’s Forgiveness, bad guys lose, biological racism, bringing the revolution, curing bigotry, curing delusions, delegitimizing Israel, digging in deeper, dominance and subordination, evening the moral score, evening the score, false memory, German philosopher, good guys and bad guys, good guys win, group dynamics, groupthink, Hannah Arendt, happy-ever-after, Heidegger’s apologists, Heidegger’s Black Notebooks, Heidegger’s defenders, high gear denial, identity politics, inciting agressors, incremental change, inherited guilt, intention as power, Jewish sensibility, Kasim Hafeez, Martin Heidegger, meliorism, metaphysical racism, mob rule, moral rank, moral scorekeeping, natural riding, Nazi commitments, new heaven and earth, old-time Westerns, Palestinian, past life memory, political philosopher, political strategy, politicizing the campus, politics of experience, pre-revolutionary conditions, pulling moral rank, reversing social syndrome, reversing syndromes, revolutionary hopes, riding into the sunset, run-up to the Holocaust, shadow boxing, Shoah, social climate, social comedy, social persona, social pose, social syndromes, the 1930’s, the Indians win, The Nazi Party, the oldest hatred, the unthinkable becomes thinkable, the worse the better, theological demonization, tough guys, tragic sense, virtue signaling, worsism | Leave a comment

Androgyny?

Posted on October 22, 2019 by Abigail

Androgyny? “The Lure of Androgyny” is the title of an article I just read. It reports that the trend to downplay biological differences between the sexes is now world-wide. This is different from giving women equal opportunity. More like: THERE’S … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, books, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, novels, Oppression, 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, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged actors and actresses, androgyny, anti-male prejudice, athletes, biological female, biological male, blue jeans, censorship, crude men, cultural change, Dante's Beatrice, debased men, defending honor, defending women’s honor, Emmanuel Levinas, entertainment fields, equal opportunity, female vulnerability, feminine security, fire fighting, firefighter rescue, French philosophy, Freudian prohibitions, gender as social construct, Hamlet, hatred of men, high fashion designers, idealizing women, level playing field, Levinas’s “And God Created Woman”, life or death situation, magazine article, make love like a man, male bashing, male gallantry, male protectiveness, male trustworthiness, marital partnership, marital protection, Marriage, Mary Eberstadt’s “The Lure of Androgyny”, masculine protection, misandry, misogyny, Ophelia, overcoming inhibitions, parental role model, policewoman, political correctness, pop music, pressures on men, prizes for acting, protective fathers, redemptress, relations between the sexes. human to human v man to woman, respect for women, Richard Lovelace’s “To Lucasta on Going to the Wars”, sexual revolution, sexual tact, single mother, targeting weakness, the arts, the eternal feminine, The New York Review of Books, the victimized woman, theatre awards, toxic masculinity, trendy article, trust, truth in sports, unisex, unisex bathrooms, unisex designers, unisex outfits, unisex sports, winning the race, women athletes, women firefighters, women in the military, women's liberation, women’s self-defense, Woodstock, worldwide trends | Leave a comment

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Category Archives: Martyrdom

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