Category Archives: Memoir

How Can We Know If It’s God?

Posted on May 10, 2022 by Abigail

How Can We Know If It’s God? Are we making a big mistake? Couldn’t it be Tom, Dick, or Susie instead? Well, no. Those three friends are all palpable, visible, leave imprints when they sit on the couch, chat about … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, motherhood, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, politics, 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, Sex Appeal, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic evaluation, academic grievance, academic politics, academic tenure, accessing circumstances, arbitration hearing, astral bodies, atheists, coincidence, communication overload, conceptual rigidity, confronting one's culture, confronting one's situation, contemporary communication, divine authority, divine ecstasy, divine signs, divine vision, divine visitation, Divine witness, divine/human interactions, escapist fantasies, escapist flight, faculty union, getting fired, ideal world, Jewish angels, Jewish calendar, Jewish essence v Jewish existence, Jewish relation to God, Jewish time, linear time, openness to God's direction, personal relationship with God, prayer guidance, prayer-guided life, problematic of history, prophetic claims, providential messaging, reasons for atheism, recognizing God, religious acculturation, retroactive confirmation, risk and certainty, the God question, theological mistakes, unconscious projection, Ur of the Chaldees., Willie Nelson | 2 Comments

Philosophical Women: the Pathbreakers

Posted on May 3, 2022 by Abigail

Philosophical Women: the Pathbreakers The Women are Up to Something is a book title lifted from a remark made by a male philosopher who anticipated trouble from one of the women philosophers at Oxford. The occasion at which the trouble … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Memoir, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, 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 A. J. Ayer's Language Truth and Logic, Anschulss, Benjamin Lipscomb's The Women Are Up to Something: How Elizabeth Anscombe Philippa Foot Mary Midgley and Iris Murdoch Revolutionized Ethics, brilliant women, Catholic convert, criterion of meaningfulness, death camp film footage, Donald MacKinnon, English universities, facts and values, feeling as feminine, females at Oxford, gendered play, Holocaust and history, intellectual drama, intellectual universe, logical positivism, lovers of wisdom, Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, male intellect, male philosophers, masculine habits of speech, masculine social reality, meaninglessness, microscopic billiard balls, Oxford honorees, Oxford University, philosophical bestseller, philosophical boundaries, philosophical nonsense, the verification principle, The Vienna Circle, thought as masculine, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, upholding standards, value neutral bits of matter, value neutral components, virtue ethics, virtue ethics and World War II, wartime broken lives, women making trouble, women philosophers, women's insignificance | Leave a comment

Believers

Posted on April 26, 2022 by Abigail

Believers When I was a child, the grownups around me held all kinds of beliefs and I wished I could be like them. Failing that, I hoped they wouldn’t find out how I really felt. As a high school girl, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American girls, American hostage in Teheran, anti-Jewish persecution, Barry Rosen, becoming a Jew, belief and identity, believers, Brooklyn College philosophy, child's insincerity, City University of New York, coherent narrative, core identity, courtship modalities, damned if you do damned if you don't, dialectical life, different strokes different folks, discovering Jewish identity, discovering one is Jewish, explaining everything, explaining one’s life, finding a narrative thread, French courtship, French women, Freudian psychoanalysis, girlfriends and boyfriends, God and chronology, God in history, God's presence, grownups' beliefs, handling insults, harassing Jewish students, hazing in Australia, Hegelian narrative, holding nothing back, Jewish explanations, Jewish identity, joke that's not a joke, keeping your cool, keeping your honor, losing social power, maintaining a sense of belonging, misspent youth, Park Avenue psychoanalysis, partnering with God, persecution and identity, personal motivation, personal uniqueness, philosophic memoir, post-modern deconstructions, pretend adoration, reductive explanation, Smith College girls, social clumsiness, social cuts, social double bind, social power, standing up to persecution, unified self, Yaffa Eliach's Hassidic Tales of the Holocaust | Leave a comment

A Therapeutic Proposal

Posted on April 12, 2022 by Abigail

A Therapeutic Proposal It’s hard to compare previous eras to this present one — which is always “the best of times and the worst of times.” That said, there are features of life in our America that feel new to … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Journalism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, 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, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social climbing, 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, Utopia, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged best of times and worst of times, common sense, cultural diagnostic, cultural therapy, culture and dialectic, curing injustice, death by denunciation, defining culture, defining history, exploiting resentment, fair competition, group think, Hegelian analysis, Hegelian remedies, historic injustice, human self-acceptance, living in history, living in one's time, man on horseback, manipulating guilt, mediation v immediacy, mob mentality, mutual respect, Next time no more Mister Nice Guy, ordinary life, patience and persistence, peaceful transfer of power, philosophy in history, political common sense, professional assassination, projected guilt, pulling moral rank, recognizing dignity, safe-guarding childhood, self-censorship, silencing dissent, social common sense, social death, story of history, the human condition, thought police, timeliness as a skill, victimization claims, world view, Zeitgeist in present day America | Leave a comment

Philosophy on the Timeline

Posted on April 5, 2022 by Abigail

Philosophy on the Timeline The other day, I went to a new acupuncturist. We got to talking, I and the nice young man who’d been assigned to me for my initial session. From the forms I filled out as a … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, books, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, 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, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, Sex Appeal, social climbing, 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, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victims, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged acupuncturist, analytic philosophers, Aristotle, boredom in culture, curing history, defining a culture, Descartes, dialectical method, dialectical progress, evil and freedom, evil and narrative, evil in history, George Lucas' The Ordering of Time: Meditations on the History of Philosophy, goal of history, graduate philosophy study, GWF Hegel, History of Philosophy, history's dialectic, history's future discoveries, Husserl, life's adventures, long philosophic conversation, love of wisdom, method of dialectic, moral threats, moral victories, Nietzsche, optimism about history, pessimism about history, philosophic mistakes, philosophical passion, philosophy and evil, philosophy professor, philosophy's history, philosophy's lineage, philosophy's questions, Plato, progress in history, rabbinic method, rabbis and philosophy, refutation in philosophy, Socrates, superseded philosophers, Talmudic method, the longest conversation, theories of history, views of truth, world views | 2 Comments

Bulletin from History

Posted on March 29, 2022 by Abigail

Bulletin from History The other day, I spoke by telephone to my Israeli first cousin. In her young days, she worked for a British military unit stationed in the region under the terms of the League of Nations Mandate for … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Autonomy, Biblical God, bigotry, Childhood, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, motherhood, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reading, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romantic Love, Sexuality, 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, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic delusions, accidents of birth, accidents of life, anthropomorphic God, beautiful souls, Biblical and modern Israel, British mandate for Palestine, British officers, circumstances, coincidences of life, Department Chair Hebrew university, diaspora Jewry, edge of existence, Hebrew university, Holocaust, Israel Defense Force, Israel's intellectual elite, Israeli family, Jewish Institute of Religion, Jewish jurisprudence, Jewish survival, light unto the nations, love at first sight, personal destiny, picturing God, pogrom, providential coincidence, Rav Tsair, Sabra, smuggling arms, stopping a pogrom, Talmud scholar, the "what if" factor, the butterfly effect, the Haganah, underground fighters, Yishuv | 2 Comments

Know When to Walk Away

Posted on March 22, 2022 by Abigail

Know When to Walk Away And, as “the Gambler” says in the Kenny Rogers song, you’ve got to know when to run. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to walk away from the Reform temple where I’ve been … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sexuality, 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, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged accuser and accused, active congregant, atonement, battle of the sexes, binding wounds, blaming men, blaming the victim, countering predators, denial and guilt, guilt as counter-productive, harassment in academe, harassment of women, Jewish view of guilt, Kenny Rogers, Kenny Rogers's The Gambler, moral damage, ousting predators, playing the victim card, prayer guidance, predators, predators targeting houses of worship, professional destruction, punishing the whistleblower, Reform temple, regret and atonement, repairing the world, Sara Rigler's I’ve Been Here Before: When Souls of the Holocaust Return, sympathy for women, tikkun, time to walk away, unwanted advances, weighing evidence | 1 Comment

Putting Puzzle Pieces Together

Posted on March 9, 2022 by Abigail

Putting Puzzle Pieces Together Suppose you thought that you had a past life in which you perished, by one of the methods in the Nazi repertoire, during the run-up years that culminated in the Holocaust. I mean, suppose you entertained … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, books, Childhood, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Faith, Female Power, Femininity, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Idolatry, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Law, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status of women, Suffering, Terror, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Authentic listening, Case histories, Chabad, Chabad rabbi, documentary hypothesis, Emotional fatigue, experimental psychology, False memories, Holocaust non-survivors, Intellectual giants, Jewish mysticism, loving the soul, Memory series, midrash, naturalistic explanations, neshama, ousting a predator, Past and present life, past life memories, past lives, Pastoral care, physicalism, Reform movement, reform rabbi, reincarnation, righteous combat, Spiritual crisis, Spiritual fatigue, Sudden weakness, Suffering of the righteous, The Jewish soul, The missing piece, women’s dignity | 4 Comments

Did My Story Just Get Longer?

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Abigail

Did My Story Just Get Longer? In recent days, I’ve felt that it’s time for philosophy — the discipline, with its history and skills — to step up, as it did in days past. To identify and negotiate the great … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Femininity, Freedom, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Immorality, Immortality, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Mortality, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, 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, 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, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 1930s in Germany, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", author and book, children's Holocaust memories, clues to past life, culture and personal choice, dialectical life, Edith Wyschogrod, evil agent, German Jews, German Jews in hiding, God and the Covenant, God and the Jews, Holocaust non-survivors, intelligence of evil, learning who one is, life adventures, life review, living one’s story, love of wisdom, many lives, narrative continuity, narrative view, out of body experience, past life regression, past-life dislocations, past-life memories, personal identity, philosophy in culture, Plato's dialogues, reincarnation, scope of the Holocaust, sealed trucks in Holocaust, self-congratulation, self-correction, understanding evil, understanding the good life, woman philosopher, zeitgeist and anti-semitism, Zyklon B | Leave a comment

Philosophy and Me

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Abigail

Philosophy and Me Goodness, who cares! you might well think, seeing the title of this column. But isn’t that what concerns each of us, whenever we’ve been required or drawn to read some philosophy? What about me? How does this … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, books, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Female Power, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Hegel, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modern Women, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, nineteenth-century, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, seventeeth century, Sex Appeal, social climbing, 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, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 19th-century nihilism, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", benefits of philosophy, Classical skepticism, competing moral claims, competing truth claims, condemnation syndrome, contemporary philosophers, cultural guilt, current intellectual life, Descartes and the moderns, dominance v subordination, exercises of power, finding common ground, Greco-Roman culture, guilt and regret, hypocrisy, implicit absolutism, intellectual common ground, intercultural disputes, Jesuits of the Sorbonne, Kepler and Galileo, manipulative accusers, manipulative use of guilt, oppressed and oppressor, pagans v Christians, philosophers and guilt, philosophers as midwives of history, philosophic skill, philosophy as its own warrant, philosophy as personal, philosophy making a difference, philosophy the longest conversation, post-modernism and objective truth, post-modernism and objective values, post-modernism and philosophy, significance of philosophy, silence of philosophy, St. Augustine, the task of philosophy, unmasking power plays | Leave a comment

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