Category Archives: medieval
Naked Apes?
Lately I happen to have been reading two books on what Darwin – and his intellectual descendants (like Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene or Jane Goodall, In the Shadow of Man) – got wrong! The two books are philosopher … 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, 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, Industrial Revolution, 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, 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 abortion public opposition private need, abstract ideals vs lived views, ape reproductive strategies, apes and pair bonding, apes and parenting, Applied Ethics, Atheism, authenticity and sociobiology, Bible as history book, competition and courtship, Creationism, culture and theories, Darwin’s allies, Darwinian courtship, David Hume, David Stove’s Darwinian Fairy Tales, Desmond Morris’ The Naked Ape, DMA, erotic life and reductionism, etiquette for courtship, female guilt, female pliancy, groupthink, healthy relationships, herd mentality, Homo sapiens and monogamy, human brains and monkey brains, human evolution, human mating strategies, human psychology, idealism and cynicism, idealism vs real life, Jane Goodall’s In the Shadow of Man, jealousy in human beings, Jonathan Leaf’s The Primate Myth, lived philosophy, male guilt, MRI, Oedipus complex, pair bonding and human evolution, philosophical reductionism, possessiveness in human beings, power politics, prehistoric monogamy, primitivism and social style, profaning the sacred, Richard Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, sex differences, simian reproductive strategies, social influence of theories, social result of wrong theories, sociobiology and bigotry, sociobiology and civilization, sociobiology and gender roles, sociobiology and human courtship, sociobiology and man/woman relations, sociobiology and misanthropy, sociobiology and misogyny, sociobiology and seduction, sociobiology and sincerity, sociobiology’s social influence, survival of the fittest, theology vs real life, theories and human reality, Thomas Malthus, toughness in women, unhealthy relationships, virginity and courtship, war of the sexes, who gets abortions, young men and chivalry
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What Kind of a Man?
I grew up on Manhattan’s Upper East Side (in the days before that got to be a swank neighborhood) and, aside from Mr. Z (our superintendent who turned out to be a Nazi spy), nobody – rich or poor or … 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 God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, 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 abnormal motives, anti-semitism as a syndrome, attacking the vulnerable, blaming the Jews, Catherine Chalier, chivalrous men, Christianity re human relations, conference on Levinas, conspiracy theorist, covert social insult, duties of a guest, eliding Levinas’ Jewish influence, Emmanuel Levinas, eros of life, evil unambiguous, French philosopher, handling social insult, Hannah Arendt and Eichmann, Hannah Arendt and Holocaust victims, Hitler unpopular in New York, Holocaust and philosophy, Holocaust survivor, honoring a guest, Jewish approach to human relations, Jewish identity, Levinas and assassination threats, Levinas and Jewish thought, Levinas and the human face, Levinas re the human face, Levinas’ disciple, living out one’s story, Manhattan's Upper East Side, manhood and courtesy to women, manliness and unmanliness, misremembering history, misremembering Hitler, moral clarity, moral clarity in World War II, moral clarity vs moral ambiguity, Nazi spy in Manhattan, nonresistance to evil, normality of friendship, Peterhouse in Cambridge U, pseudo questions, psychology of anti-semitism, resistance to evil, respecting the human face, reversing good and evil, secular human relations, self-realization, simplicity of evil, social reality, social reality before anti-semitism, socially problematic to be Jewish, Spoiling One’s Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt in Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Sydney University’s Dept of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, the human norm, World War 2’s domestic front, World War II
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Peterhouse Meets Abbie
Peterhouse was founded in 1284 which makes it the oldest of the colleges in Cambridge University. A “college” provides a residence for students going for degrees at various levels and also for Fellows and other instructors who will be available … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, 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 academic dinner, academic politics, academic publications, Anti-Semitism at Cambridge University, Anti-Semitism at Peterhouse, anti-semitism in academe, Australian politics, Australian research affiliate, Australian Universities, bad manners, baiting a guest, christians and jews, colleges in Cambridge U, collegial friends, comparing husbands, countering an insult vs making a scene, culture of rudeness, defending honor, defending one’s honor, dinner for visiting philosopher, erotic failure, guest from Peterhouse, handling a social insult, handling social aggression, hidden prejudices, higher ed in England, honoring a guest, husband as protector, Jews handling Anti-Semitic insults, maintaining courtesy and countering insult, medieval Anti-Semitism revived, personal honor and honor of one’s people, Peterhouse, philosophical friends, philosophy in Australia, philosophy research affiliate, private prejudices, protecting a vulnerable wife, protocol of social life, responding to a rude guest, signals of safety, social boundaries vs personal protection, social decorum vs protecting one’s wife, social disadvantage, social protocol, social protocol and handling an insult, social protocol and personal insult, social protocol vs social insult, spousal failure as protector, spouse as ally, supportive husband, Sydney U’s Dept of Traditional and Modern Philos, symbolic life and death struggle, table talk, the honor of Jews, unhidden prejudices, unsupportive husband, unsupportive partner, visiting philosopher, women handling insults, women handling male insults
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The Silver Plus One
During the days following our return from California, we had to postpone the celebration of our 26th wedding anniversary so the “silver” anniversary plus one – in order first to face the leaning tower of chores and summonses that awaited … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, 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, 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 AAR, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal’s philosophical articles, academic combat, academic politics, action vs theory, against all odds, American Academy of Religion, analytic philosopher, anniversary celebration, betting on love, book with illustrations, Borough of Brooklyn, Brooklyn College, calculating advantages, City University of New York, college administration, college administration and curriculum, core curriculum, courtship and analytic philosophy, dating and analytic philosophy, defending academic standards, defending civilization, defending education, defending higher education, falling in love, fatal risks, fighting the good fight, finding the right marriage partner, finding the right partner, foolhardy, foolish risks, God makes marriages, God: An Autobiography As Told to a Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin, history department, holy ground, impolitic risks, intelligent risk, Jerry L. Martin’s Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, joining two lives, knowing when to act, knowing when to theorize, last stand, letting go of the result, life review, lifelong projects, looking for Miss Right, looking for Mr. Right, looking for the right partner, love and marriage, marital commitment, marital illusions, marital politics, marriage for compatibility, matters of the heart, meeting friends in cafes, miscalculations, narrowmindedness, not looking for Miss Right, not looking for Mr. Right, novelistic encounters, Pascal's wager, personal history, personal virtues, philosophic evaluation of religious claims, philosophical articles, philosophy and religious claims, Philosophy Department, philosophy of religion, political theory vs action, politics of experience, putting personal life on hold, real life means taking risks, received wisdom, reflection on past choices, religious claims and counterclaims, religious experience, risks of love, romantic illusions, Romantic Love, romantic love as absolute, romantic mistakes, romantic wager, Signature Project, silver wedding anniversary, strategizing, striking while the iron is hot, Theology Without Walls, theoretical vs practical level, true love, true love and marriage, TWW, unexpected religious experience, unprecedented religious experience, unusual religious experience, wedding anniversary, working class restaurant
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Feminism with Something to Hide
When I was a girl, nobody thought women weren’t liberated. Heck, we had the vote. We could get as educated as we wanted to be. We could get hired for jobs formerly reserved for men. Of course, we had to … 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 God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, 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 15 minutes of fame, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, academic feminism, American courtship patterns, American Fulbrights in Paris, birth of the unconscious, Confessions of a Young Philosopher by Abigail L. Rosenthal, dystopia, European feminine know-how, European vs American courtship, European women, extravagant courtship, fallacies of argument, fame, fame and feminism, fashionably Oppressed, fashions in oppression, Feminism, feminism and dialectic, Feminism and Freudian theory, feminism as performance, feminism past and present, feminist power, fictional self-disclosure, forgiving one’s self, formation of the “I”, formation of the unconscious, Fulbright Fellows, Fulbright Fellows in Paris, girdles nylons and virginity, infantile trauma, influential intellectuals, intellectual power, intellectuals and culture, Judith Butler and Hegel, Judith Butler’s feminism, Judith Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself, Judith Butler’s primal scene, life before feminism, older and wiser, personal relations and risk, philosophical dialogue, pre-feminist marriage deadline, pre-feminist women, pseudo-arguments, self and social conditions, self mistrust, self repair, self-formation, sense of self, social conditions and self-formation, social conditions and self-knowledge, social status of truth, telling one’s story, telling one’s truth, the American script for women, truth about oneself, unfashionable oppression, women’s experience, women’s liberation, women’s reality vs ideology, women’s wisdom
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When It Has My Name On It
There are moments that put one’s integrity to the test. They aren’t necessarily to be ranked higher than the everyday moments that only require one to keep on keeping on. In first youth, one dreams of deeds of heroic daring … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, 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, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, 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, 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 politics, admitting the truth, all that glitters is not gold, answering a call, avoiding a calling, being put on the spot, breaking the silence, career risk, careerism, child abuse, coming out of the closet, courage to grow up, derring-do, dodging a duty, duties one cannot dodge, earned vs phony status, everyday courage, everyday moments, expressing remorse, familial sexual abuse, family loyalty, family tree, father-daughter abuse, go along to get along, gossip, heroic efforts, imaginary heroics, integrity, integrity on the line, integrity's price, Israel, job threats in academe, life between heaven and hell, life challenge, life on the timeline, living normally, missing one's moment, moral blindness, moral challenge, moral courage, moral evasion, moral summons, morality has no gender, normality as heroic, ordinary choice vs moral choice, outward status vs real merit, Paul Newman in Exodus, power threats in academe, PTSD, putting one's honor on the line, real manhood and pretense of manhood, rising to a challenge, sharing a painful truth, social conformism, the call to courage, the call to heroism, the cost of truth, the courage to be normal, the moral dimension, the truth as reinstating reality, war wounds, war wounds and personality change, yearning for extremes, youthful dreams
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