Category Archives: Renaissance

When Your Enemy Is Another Woman

Posted on November 18, 2025 by Abigail

“Sisterhood is powerful.” Well, often it is, but that power is not always protective. After all, in Genesis, the first Book of the Hebrew Bible, the first recorded relation between siblings is that of murderer (Cain) to murderee (Abel). Despite … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, 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, Desire and Authenticity, 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, 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 Aaron and the Golden Calf, Aaron in Exodus 32, Aaron’s betrayal, Aaron’s brand of leadership, Aaron’s leadership in Exodus, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Feminism Without Contradictions, academic feminist, academic job struggle, academic politics, academic protocol, anti-chivalry, battle of the sexes, bearing false witness, betraying one’s trust, Betty Friedan, Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, breaking protocol, Brooklyn College, church solvency, defamation, defamatory gossip, devoted husband, dinner to honor feminist, equality of the sexes, erotic competition, false accusations, falsely accusing, famous feminist, female power, feminism and celebrity, feminism and marriage, feminism founding mother, feminist battle scars, feminist career, feminist friend, feminist leader, feminist politics, feminist power struggles, feminist reputation, feminist teamwork, feminist wounds, fight for academic tenure, forgive and forget, Golden Calf, guest of honor, heroines, honor among feminists, honoring a friend, honoring women, house of worship, husband of feminist, iconoclastic stance, ingratitude, insolvent seminaries, invited speaker, invited temple speaker, keeping the books, male/female asymmetries, manipulative and vulgar speaker, overcoming resentment, philosophic feminism, philosophical career, reform and reparation, reformed Judaism, refusing idol worship, repairing academic rifts, repairing collegial relations, repairing misdeeds, sisterhood is powerful, solvency and seminaries, solvency in organized religion, supporting congregants, Synagogue finances, synagogue solvency, teamwork in a common effort, tenure fight, the feminist movement, The Second Wave Feminism, Top of the Sixes Restaurant, unprofessional behavior, violating protocol, women against women, women colleagues, women consoling women, women damaging women, women enemies, women heroes, women insulting women, women undermining women, women’s history, women’s solidarity, worshipping idols | 2 Comments

I Stopped Trying to Get Above It

Posted on November 11, 2025 by Abigail

Reading Jeff Kripal’s Roads of Excess, Palaces of Wisdom brought the topic of mysticism to the front of my mind. At earlier junctures of my life journey, mysticism had clearly been a concern. It seemed to offer a way out … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, 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, 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, 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, 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, Uncategorized, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Advaita Vedanta, beautiful guru, beyond good and evil, Blaise Pascal, cancer and life experience, cults and corruption, dangers of a spiritual quest, dilemmas and double binds, Eastern mystics, eros and merging with God, eros and mysticism, escapism, Evelyn Underhill, Evelyn Underhill’s Mysticism, experiential impasses, finding one’s life path, getting above it, guru who falls, gurus and exploitation, historians of mysticism, impasses, insoluble experience and cancer, knowing how to think, knowing what to do, knowing what to say, Kripal’s Roads of Excess Palaces of Wisdom, life in history, life journey, life on the timeline, life’s impasses and cancer, merging with the Divine, mind control and brainwashing, mystical journeys, mystical merging, mysticism and authenticity, mysticism and autonomy, mysticism and celibacy, mysticism and conformism, mysticism and human goals, mysticism and seduction, mysticism and sex, mysticism and the erotic, mysticism as academic topic, mysticism as escapism, mysticism studies, mystics in Asia, mystics in Christianity, Pascal as mystic, Realized Master, spiritual exploration and brainwashing, spiritual exploration and mind control, spiritual quest, spiritual quest and risk, theism and pantheism, transcendence, transcendence as escapism, woman guru | 2 Comments

Under the Chariot Wheels

Posted on October 28, 2025 by Abigail

Of late, I’ve begun to read certain well-regarded women writers. I started with Sylvia Plath and now it’s Joan Didion. Earlier in my reading life, I had stayed away from these writers, fearing that they were whiners after all – … 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, 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, 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 Feminism Without Contradictions, academic feminists, anomie, antiwomen bigotry, authenticity and feminism, changing public opinion, consciousness-raising group, construction workers’ catcalling, copouts of feminism, differences denied, dying spouse, exploitation of women, fashionable authors, feelings aren’t facts, feminism and American politics, feminism and chivalry, feminism and cultural politics, feminism and political incorrectness, feminism and rape, feminism and womanly sympathy, feminism’s denial of difference, feminism’s repressions, feminist complaints, feminist diagnostic, feminist disappointments, feminist infighting, feminist motivation, feminist pioneers, feminist theory and real women, feminists on TV talk shows, Gnosticism and feminism, Hollywood screenwriters, honor your mother, human motivation, Joan Didion, Joan Didion and John Gregory Dunn, Joan Didion on feminism, Joan Didion’s The White Album, Juanita Broaddrick, manipulating guilt, marital callousness, marital indifference, movie reviewers, movie-making processes, MS magazine, narcissist, philosophy and feminism, rape accusation, second-wave feminists, self-indulgence, sense of entitlement, social intelligence, sophisticated woman writers, spinsters, Sylvia Plath, the beauty myth, the male gaze, The Monist feminism issue, trail-blazing women, understanding men, Upper East Side discussion group, utopian feminism, vulnerability repressed, what women know, women and social intelligence, women as victims, women understanding men, women’s autonomy, women’s depth experiences, women’s friendships, world-weary anomie | 2 Comments

Naked Apes?

Posted on October 21, 2025 by Abigail

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 | 2 Comments

When the Stones Speak

Posted on August 12, 2025 by Abigail

Doran Spielman’s When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David Is the Bible a history book? Did the stories in it (or some of the more literal-sounding ones) really happen? Or are we modern people obliged … Continue reading →

Posted in 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, 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, 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 adversaries to biblical archaeology, ancient human DNA, archaeology confirming Bible, atheism and civilization, Babylonians destroy First Temple, battle for the modern mind, Bible and archeology, Bible and existential questions, Bible and modern people, Bible as analogical, Bible as history, Bible as metaphorical, Bible as poetical, Bible as symbolic, Biblical historicity and anti-semitism, Biblical Israelites and DNA, Biblical Israelites and modern Jews, Biblical literalism, Biblical stories as factual, Biblical tales as nonfactual, Davidic monarchy, decline of the West, DNA analysis, First Temple ruins, First Temple stones, First Temple’s destruction 586 BCE, God as real vs metaphoric, God in real history, if it bleeds it leads, Israelite DNA and Jews, Jeremiah thrown in cistern, Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate, Jesus, Jesus and the press, Jesus at the King David hotel, Jesus holds a press conference, Jesus’ hypothetical return, Jesus’ return, Jewish history from ancient to contemporary, King David’s palace, modernity and skepticism, modernity vs Bible’s historicity, ongoing Jewish history, Paleo-Hebrew of Biblical times, postmodern skeptics, Satan holds a press conference, spirituality and history, the city of David, When the Stones Speak by Doron Spielman, Yehuchal and Jeremiah, Yehuchal son of Shelemiah | 4 Comments

Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions: Preface, Part 4

Posted on March 11, 2025 by Abigail

Today Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) complete their discussion of the Preface to her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let’s see how their discussion winds up. *** *** Jerry: In … Continue reading →

Posted in 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, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, 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, 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, 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, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", 20th-century philosophy, Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic philosophy, authenticity and truth, authenticity in love, Confession as a genre, Divine witness, ethics and integrity, ethics of love, examined life, existential reflection, faith and reason, feminist philosophy, Fulbright scholarship, God as backup for truthfulness, God as Witness, God's bias for truthfulness, God's Witness and truthfulness, grin and bear it, happy ending, honest motivation, human experience, idealism vs reality, inauthentic religion, insuperable obstacles, intellectual honesty, intellectual independence, Jewish philosophy, leaving home, liberty of mind, life as experiment, life as experiment with truth, life's ideal dimension, life's verticle dimension, live your philosophy, living authentically, living sincerely, living without pretense, living your ideas, love of wisdom, married philosophers, moral courage, moral philosophy, mystical experience, Paris, Paris in the 20th century, Paris memoirs, personal philosophy, philosophical autobiography, philosophical journey, philosophical memoir, philosophical storytelling, philosophy and love, philosophy and spirituality, philosophy of love, putting ideas to the test, real life as a test of ideas, romantic marriages, search for truth, seeking truth, seeking wisdom, self-deception, self-discovery, self-trust, sincerity in philosophy, smile!, Spinoza, stoicism, testing one's ideals, true aim of marriage, true love, truth in marriage, unforeseen pitfalls, wisdom traditions, witness to truth, women authors, women philosophers, worldly warnings, you can't fool God | Leave a comment

Civilization’s Erotic Discontents

Posted on January 28, 2025 by Abigail

If you want to talk safely about the topic of sexual preferences, you must begin with the following disclaimer: “I don’t care what people do in …” In what? The privacy of their homes? Insofar as they’re old enough 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, 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 adolescence and the popularity nightmare, adult credibility, bad faith about erotic desire, bad faith and eros, bad faith and erotic life, bad faith in argument, being asked to dance, boy-girl relations and patriarchy, Butler’s Bodies that Matter, Butler’s Gender Trouble, Butler’s Giving an Account of Oneself, capturing the moral high ground, civilization-authorized desire, civilization’s desire to live, civilization’s eros, civilization’s lack of desire to live, competition for erotic prestige, culture-authorized desire, desire to go on living, desire to persevere in one’s own being, disvaluing heterosexuality, disvaluing homosexuality, eros and civilization, eros in history, eros in the state and the individual, erotic bad faith, erotic desire, erotic discontent, erotic life as competitive, erotic playing field, erotic prestige, erotic rivalry, erotic safety, establishing credibility, feminist jargon, feminist passwords, feminist signals, feminist slogans, feminist theoretician, forms of oppression, fulfillment of bodily purpose, fulfillment of life purpose, heterosexual advantage in Western civilization, heterosexual advantages, heterosexual prestige, heterosexuality and homosexuality mutually disvaluing other sexualities, heterosexuality associated with oppression, homosexual competition, homosexual privilege in classical times, how to talk about private matters, indifference to what people do, internal and external erotic competitiveness, Judith Butler, lesbian social dancing, logical possibilities of sexual combinations, loss of desire to live, Nietzsche’s revaluation of values, non-standard erotic combinations, non-standard erotic possibilities, not being asked to dance, one way open-mindedness, oppression studies, outranking erotic rivals, patriarchy, patriarchy racism colonialism, philosophic facts of life, Plato’s republic, Plato’s state as the soul writ large, playing field in the game of life, popularity contest, pretending not to care, private life and public life, pulling moral rank, reality based discussion, reasons to live, restoring the desire to live, reviving the desire to live, rhetorical tactics in seduction, rhetorical tactics in sexual choice, rivalry between man-woman courtship and same-sex courtship, rivalry between same sex attraction and opposite sex attraction, rules of the game of life, same-sex monogamy, sexual preferences, social space for man/woman romance, Spinoza’s conatus, stakes in the game of life, the erotic territory, the game of life, the last shall be first, the trajectory of desire, there are no neutrals, trustworthiness in discussion, unfair erotic advantage, valuing non-heterosexuality, wallflower, Western Civilization, what people do in private | 1 Comment

Thoughts About and Beyond Boundaries

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Abigail

I’ve just finished reading consecutively a book that previously, from time to time over the years, I’ve only browsed through. The very title, The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The Worldview of Williams James, might scare off any readers … 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, 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, 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 19th-century philosophy, academic feminism, after death communications, alternate healers, alternative medicine, American philosopher, background assumptions in feminism, background assumptions in science, background assumptions in scientific investigation, beyond boundaries, beyond limits, competitve struggle as masculine, conventional cancer treatment, cooperation as feminine, cooperation in evolution, cooperation in population dynamics, creativity and self-doubt, creativity linked to neurosis, creativity vs reductionism, cultural and personal dichotomies, cultural boundaries of experience, cultural history and personal history, current philosophic fashions, Darwin and Freud in culture, Darwinian determinism, different life problematics, ecology, false gods, Freudian determinism, genetics, Henry James, life stories, limitations as opportunities, limits of alternative medicine, limits of modern psychology, Making Sense of My Life: A Memoir by Evelyn Fox Keller, medical humiliation Catholic Jewish and Protestant, merits of William James, metaphoric interpretations of evolution, neurotic affectations, novelistic characters, novelistic life stories, novelistic stories, open-mindedness, population dynamics, psychic communications, psychic healers, reductionism of Darwin, reductionism of Freud, reductionist psychologies, resource scarcity, science and epistemology, search and destroy cancer treatments, search for truth, self-determination undermined, self-trust, self-trust undermined, sociology of medicine, The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The Worldview of Williams James by Jane Roberts, three sectarian branches of medical humiliation, William James, William James from the afterlife | Leave a comment

Interesting Times

Posted on July 23, 2024 by Abigail

There is a well-known curse, supposedly Chinese, that goes: May you live in interesting times! In my childhood I lived in a New York City that snowed in winter. We schoolkids built snowmen and went sledding in the park. Life … 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, 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, 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, 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, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, 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 academic bureaucracy, American philosopher, anti-semitism and loss of cultural self-respect, anti-semitism as replacement for personal defeat, anti-semitism in England, anti-semitism in higher education, anti-Zionism and Western cultural demoralization, anti-Zionism as loss of cultural self-defense, antigenocide turned on its head, Battle of Trafalgar, Bernard Harrison's Blaming the Jews, Big City childhood, British nineteenth-century cultural flourishing, building snowmen, Chautauqua movement, Chinese proverb, civilizational cycles, dark romanticism, demoralized generation, edifying educational retreat, English philosopher, going along to get along, Hebrew Bible as Jewish memory, Hitler’s anti-Judaism, Hitler’s genocide, Hitler’s racial classifications, ideal world vs real world, interesting times, Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence, Israel’s will to survive, Jews as remembering their history, Jews not a race, Jews recording their history, Jews seen as a race, memory gap, moral balance, New York City childhood, overt vs implied anti-semitism, philosophic colleague, predictability of anti-semitism, safe and solid childhood, seeing what you expect, sledding in the park, suppressing chronological memory, the English defeat Napoleon, the makings of an anti-semite, too much of a good thing, transatlantic conversation, UN anti-zionism, uplifting vacation, wholesome group activities, wholesome uplift vs wicked world, William James, William James’ What Makes a Life Significant?, World War I demoralizes England, World War II and British cultural exhaustion | Leave a comment

The Stroke of Lightning

Posted on July 16, 2024 by Abigail

One time I asked the Swiss-French philosopher Jeanne Hersch what she thought the French model for romantic love was. Her response was instant: C’est Tristan. That twelfth-century tale, which exists in many versions, goes like this: Tristan, a Cornish knight, … Continue reading →

Posted in 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, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, public facade, public intellectual, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged academic attitudes, blinded by love, bracketing personal involvement, bracketing the natural attitude, cynicism as pretense, dance of the lovers, Dante Alighieri, Dante and Beatrice, Dante's romantic love, Dante’s Divine Comedy, Edmund Husserl, encoded Gnostic stories, explaining away romance, falling in love, falling in love unawares, feminism as anti-romantic, fitting romantic love into categories, French choreography of romance, French culture and the coup de foudre, French model of romantic love, gender imbalance, good life as a balance between extremes, honoring womanly hopes, independent woman, insincere hopelessness, Jeanne Hersch, lawbreaking for the sake of a better world, le coup de foudre, libertine Gnosticism, lovers in Paris, medieval romance, modern woman, nihilism as pretense, nonviolent resistance, noticing the romantic spark, objective self-examination, objective self-knowledge, ontology of romantic love, outliving one's love, outliving romantic love, personal histories, Phenomenology, pretended maturity, professional woman, reductive explanations for romantic love, resistance and non-resistance, romance and self protection, romance as novelistic, romance tales as encoded Gnostic tracts, romantic approach of French vs. American women, Romantic Love, romantic love and psychology, romantic love and the experts, romantic love and theoretical explanations, romantic love as a law onto itself, romantic love as sanity in depth, romantic love as temporary, romantic love treated as abnormal, romantic love treated as madness, romantic love vs. seduction, saving the liberal arts, studying romance, taking romantic love seriously, the strategy of being a woman, the stroke of lightning, the Tristan template, the world has no room for romance, Tristan and Iseult, true love, trusting romantic love, Upper East Side, well-balanced life, woman philosopher | 1 Comment

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