Category Archives: Romantic Love

Admiration

Posted on October 9, 2018 by Abigail

Admiration In the prison of his days Teach the free man how to praise. Despite W. H. Auden, and his poem, In Memory of W. B. Yeats, we live in a time whose typical mood is suspicion. It’s almost the … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, books, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, 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, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, motherhood, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged accommodation, Adam Kirsch, admiration, ambiguous, appreciation, avoiding ill will, bad checks, best friends, brothers and sisters, bungalow colony, child/parent duties, civil disobedience, Classical philosophy, college friends, concerts, counterfeit compensation, creditors, cutting a figure, deadbeat sibling, deadbeats, Diana Trilling, disambiguous, emotional debts, emotional unfairness, enabling, epistolary relationships, fairness in family, family circle, family relations, family unfairness, filial obligations, filial piety, financial debts, friendship breakup, graduate school, Henry M. Rosenthal, high culture, intellectual influence, intellectuals’ correspondence, irate creditors, legal tender, Life in Culture: Selected Letters of Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, looking like an intellectual, looking the part, love and equality, making your mark, male friendship, martyr complex, misguided fairness, mom loves you best, money, money and love, money and truth, moral imperative, New York intellectuals, only child, opinion shaping, parental favor, Paul Ricoeur, Plato, Plato’s Crito, praise, Public Intellectual, quarreling over inheritance, recitals, reprove your brother, reprove your sister, reproving the wrongdoer, righting wrongs, self-content, shirked obligations, sibling rivalry, Socrates, sour grapes, Stanley Rosen, sticking to the truth, suspicion, symbols and metaphors, the 1930’s, the Great Depression, the hermeneutics of suspicion, the rip-off, unfairness in family, unpaid debts, W. H. Auden, W.H. Auden's In Memory of W B Yeats, Watchung Mountains of New Jersey | Leave a comment

What’s Your Evidence?

Posted on October 2, 2018 by Abigail

What’s Your Evidence? In the claims and counter-claims of real life, what is to count as evidence? Recently, I had occasion to try to defend myself to a third party, against the damaging claims of a person who had been … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, 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, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, 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, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a way out, accusations, admissible evidence, Arbitration, argument, artistic film, available options, being believed, believing victims, closing argument, confirming witness, counter-accusations, counter-argument, counter-claims, court case, court papers, credibility, credulity, cross examination, damaging claims, documentary evidence, emotional case, England, escapism, evidence, favorable ruling, finding an opening, friendship, frustration, Gnosticism, grossed out, guidance, hanging in, imperfect world, impossibilities, judge, just and unjust, justice, lawyer friend, lawyers, legal action, legal defense, legal merit, legal proceedings, Maya, no exit, options, Paper trail, probative evidence, real life, reliable witness, repairing the world, scales of justice, self-defense, sense of justice, settlement out of court, showing up, social cut, social establishment, social insignificance, social life, social snub, social weight, staying real, suicide, testimony, testimony under oath, The Bookshop, topdog, underdog, union counsel, unreal world, unreliable witness, utopian, utopian ideology, victimizing, witness, witnessing | 2 Comments

Are People Really Good at Heart?

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Abigail

Are People Really Good at Heart? “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.” These words — set down as a belief, not a question — are among the last lines in the diary … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Jews, Journalism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, non-violence, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, social construction, Social Conventions, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged acts of kindness, American idealists, being set up, believing illusions, believing the best, Bergen Belsen, betrayal to the Nazis, Black American Exiles, concentration camp, death in the desert, defenselessness, Egyptian authorities, enabling, enabling evildoers, Fulbright scholars, gestures of kindness, good-heartedness, hiding from the Nazis, Holocaust victims, human goodness, human kindness, human nature, idealistic values, Isis attack, John Armstrong, kindness as natural, Kindness Tour, kindness tourists, Lauren Geoghegan and Jay Austin, life lessons, lowering defenses, misguided trust, mistakes of kindness, mitzvot, mortal miscalculations, naivete, non-violence, Parisian expatriate, reforming evildoers, repairing the world, Richard Wright, safeguarding good people, satyagraha, saving good people, The Diary of Anne Frank, the goodness of others, The Shoah, thirst and exposure, tragedy, trusting people, Tweety bird | 6 Comments

Beatrice in Modern Gear

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Abigail

Beatrice in Modern Gear “Thou “who, to bring my soul to Paradise, Didst leave the imprint of thy steps in hell …” So wrote Dante of Beatrice at the end of his Divine Comedy. “The eternal feminine leads us above.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, Medieval, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 14th century, ancient v modern, Aristotelian worldview, Aristotle, bad faith, Beatrice, breakfast with philosophers, chivalry, contemporary novel, courtly love, Dante’s Divine Comedy, deathbed communication, deathbed vision, delusional attachments, delusive ideals, disenchantment, disillusionment, enabling, feminist worldview, Goethe's Faust, good advice, idealization of woman, inauthenticity, Inner world vs external world, intelligible world, Kipling’s Kim, love’s power, mechanistic view of nature, medieval poet, medieval politics, mind/body problem, modern physics, modern psychology, Modernity, noble ideals, outdated chivalry, primary v secondary qualities, purposive worldview, randomness in physics, sacrificial love, Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, Sartre’s cafe scene, saving one’s beloved, saving souls, scientific outlook, self-sacrifice, subjective v objective, teleology, the eternal feminine, the feminine ideal, therapeutic outlook, universal genius, your place or mine | Leave a comment

Private Matters

Posted on September 4, 2018 by Abigail

Private Matters The man I love has gone through harrowing surgery this week. It was not one of the operations currently at the frontier of the surgical arts. Once, it was. Now it’s about at the middle. Surgeons do it … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, scientism, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 'till death do us part, academe, acceptance, action fields, aloneness, beshert, broken history, bypass surgery, cutting-edge surgery, difficult recoveries, facing the abyss, falling in love, falsified life, friendship, Heart surgery, human entanglements, husband and wife, institutional supports, life renewal, life system, limit situations, living artificially, living naturally, long term storage, Manhattan parks and museums, marriage for modern women, marriage vows, meaningful work, mind/body relations, moral accounting, moral record, moral support, New York City life, ordeal, philosophic commitment, philosophical articles, philosophy professor, professor/student interaction, recovery process, relativism, search for truth, short term storage, single life, solitude., state-of-the-art medical care, survivor’s predicament, taking risks, the city one loves, the old neighborhood, true love, truthfulness, untangling life knots, Upper East Side, women’s identity | 3 Comments

Persecution and the Art of Writing

Posted on August 28, 2018 by Abigail

Persecution and the Art of Writing That’s the catchy title of a book published in the 1950’s by a man named Leo Strauss – initially derided, later enormously influential. Outside philosophy and political theory, Strauss’s name is not generally … Continue reading →

Posted in Action, Art, Art of Living, books, Contradictions, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Feminism, history of ideas, Literature, Love, Philosophy, Political, politics, politics of ideas, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, relationships, Roles, Romantic Love, social construction, Social Conventions, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged candor, candor in courtship, conspiracy theory, coquetry, courtship, dialectic, diplomacy, emigre philosophers, emigres, esotericism, Eugenics, exoteric writing, gauging the audience, hidden doctrine, hidden views, history of ideas, integrity, intellectual integrity, intellectuals, Leo Strauss’s Persecution and the Art of Writing, oral teaching, Palestinian student, people pleasing, philosophic training, philosophy, Plato's Phaedrus, Plato's Republic, political realism, political science, political theory, public intellectuals, rhetoric, saying the right thing, secret doctrine, social blunders, social intelligence, speech and silence, state managed reproduction, straight shooting, tact, the ideal state, The Woman Question, Thought Crimes, trial and error, truth-seekers, women in philosophy, writing in code | Leave a comment

Sacrificial Acts

Posted on July 3, 2018 by Abigail

Sacrificial Acts A review of mine, written in support of an author I greatly admire, was just accepted for publication. It was written at the sacrifice of long-postponed time and energy that, right now, I really needed to expend … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Art of Living, Autonomy, books, bureaucracy, Cities, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Oppression, Past and Future, Philosophy, Political, politics of ideas, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, victimhood, victims, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way" by Henry M. Rosenthal; ed. Abigail L. Rosenthal, 17th Century Philosophers, academia, altruism, “Brooklyn Connections”, Benedict Spinoza, Brooklyn College, career advancement, career sacrifice, college curriculum, deathbed promise, expecting pay off, expecting rewards, faculty fight, father fixation, father/daughter relationships, finding balance, getting published, happy endings, higher education, honoring commitments, impromptu speech, invited speaker, Jerry L. Martin, job struggle, knowing what is due, Life Force, love at first sight, love sight unseen, modern philosophy, online editors, online publications, overcoming the ego, personal life, posthumous work, professional advancement, professional reputation, professional standing, providence, publication, self-sacrifice, setting priorities, strategic acumen, tea with friends, teaching obligations, Thomas Hobbes, unexpected rewards, unjust firing, unpublished manuscript, unselfishness | 2 Comments

	Abigail on What’s Your Evidence?
	Penny Heiple, Three… on What’s Your Evidence?
	Abigail on Are People Really Good at…
	Penny Heiple, Three… on Are People Really Good at…
	Abigail on Are People Really Good at…

Category Archives: Romantic Love

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