Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column
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"I would like to open this site for conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. I can be wrong as often as right, so specific advice will be avoided. What will be sought is light on how best to frame the situation of women, considered as a highly interesting problematic. What kind of hand have we been dealt, as women, and how can we best play it?
Comments are warmly encouraged on any post at any point."
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Tag Archives: alienation
Political Innocence
Political Innocence If each of us were sure we were right, we would never quarrel with anyone – much less break with friends – over politics. The politically-triggered quarrels, friendship breakages, civil-society breakdowns, result from our insecurity over what we … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, 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, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Medieval, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, nineteenth-century, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, self-deception, Sex Appeal, 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, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged ad hominen fallacy, aim of marriage, Alasdair Macintyre's Ethics in the Conflicts of Modernity, alienation, arguing to win, argument train, assembly line production, banked labor, better argument, broken friendship, capital, Capitalism, civil society, civil society breakdown, civility breakdown, communitarians, economic solutions, economic theory, elusive Beloved, emotional security, erotic life, fallability, fragmentary evidence, hidden Beloved, hypothetical explanation, hypothetical views, imperfect world, Industrial Revolution, informal fallacies, inherited consensus, inherited norms, insecurity, intellectual insecurity, Jane Roberts' The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The World View of William James, liberty of mind, Marxian theory, mass production, modern philosophy, Modernity, moral insecurity, originality surpressed, originality v groupthink, persecution of Jews, philosophical argument, philosophical discussion, political solutions, power as the only truth, quarrels, Reform temple, repairing the world, social power, Song of Songs, space of friendship, Spinoza's Ethics, theory of surplus value, thought experiment, traditional values, trained philosophers, truth, truth-seeking, tyranny of gossip, unintended consequences, witch burning
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“The Big Picture”
“The Big Picture” Why do we need philosophy? There are entire philosophic orientations, Wittgenstein’s is one, holding that philosophy as traditionally practiced is something to be cured of, and that the only thing philosophy can usefully do is to cure … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, Chivalry, Christianity, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, 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, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, Medieval, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, politics, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Renaissance, Roles, Romanticism, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, slave, social climbing, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, status of women, Suffering, Terror, terrorism, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "man will be a god to man", "the best lack all conviction", "the moderns", "the worst are full of passionate intensity", administrators, alienation, automobile manufacturers, autonomous man, autonomous woman, bankers, Battle of Lepanto, Battle of Tours, biblical world view, botanists, chefs, church authority, Church Fathers, Classical world view, common experience, communism, conscience, cosmology, cultural self-condemnation, cultural self-reproach, disaffiliates, disvalued Jews, dualism, expertise, experts, facism, fly in fly bottle, free will, Galileo, Galileo's telescope, Gates of Vienna, geologists, globalization, grammarians, Greco-Roman world view, Hebrew Scripture, house painters, ice cream from the hardware store, identity theory, intelligent will, Islamism, Israelite world view, Jihad, language of specialists, lawyers, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Materialism, metaphysics, micro-particle physicists, mind as brain, mind/body, Modernity, naturalism, newscasters, novelistic lives, Ontology, ordinary language, Patristic writings, personal identity, personal life, philosophic cure, philosophic therapy, philosophical puzzles, philosophy, photographers, physicalism, poets, political Islam, priests, puzzle pieces, qualia, quarrel of the ancients and the moderns, reductionism, religion, religious authority, scientism, secularlism, self-assertion, sins of the West, social life, specialists, supervenience, The Bible, the mind/body problem, the will, the will to power, W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming", Western Civilization, Wittgenstein's philosophical investigations, Wittgensteinians
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“Meta-Narratives”
“Meta-Narratives” There is a French post-modern philosopher who writes, “I define postmodern as incredulity toward metanarratives.” By that is meant, there is no large story – no history of humanity as such – into which our private stories, the novellas … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Autonomy, Cities, Class, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, nineteenth-century, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, slave, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "all the world's a stage", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Getting Past Marx and Freud", abstractions, Adolf Hitler, Albert Camus, alienation, analytic geometry, Cartesian Method, Charles Darwin, civilization, class warfare, communism, counter-narrative, fanaticism, fiction, historiography, Holocaust, humanism, ideality, imagination, Jean-Francios Lyotard's The Postmodern Condition, Jewish influence, Karl Marx, laws of nature, laws of physics, macro-history, man-made meta-narratives, Marxism, meta-narrative, Modernity, narrative, Newton, nonfiction, novelists, novels, Old World charm, plot, Providential history, Rene Descartes' Rules for the Direction of the Mind, science, self evidence, seventeenth century, skepticism, story, survival of the fittest, theory of evolution, Timothy Snyder's Black Earth: The Holocaust as History and Warning, urban planning, urban renewal, utopia, W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming", wage slaves, Western history, world history, writers
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“Unhappiness”
“Unhappiness” Now there’s a rich topic! It seems easier to do (achieve) than happiness, or at least easier to write about. The New York Times Book Review — where you have a weekly roundup of what the people who read, … Continue reading →
Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Autonomy, Chivalry, Cities, Class, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courtship, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, History, history of ideas, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, Memoir, Mind Control, Modernism, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, Political Movements, Power, Psychology, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Seduction, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, Social Conventions, Sociobiology, Spirituality, Suffering, Terror, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, Theism, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", alienation, angst, anomie, anxiety, Australia, Australian unhappiness, bad guys, Brené Brown's "The Power of Vulnerability", choice of evils, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, despair, doom, enabling, failed romance, falling in love, false love, first love, frustration, generosity, good guys, happy endings, heartbreak, hidden facts, hidden life, Homer's Odyssey, lies and identity, literate readers, looking to score, lying, Mr. Right, New York Times Book Review, Odysseus, predators, psychic stability, rescuing others, Romance, saving others, seducers, self-sacrifice, Siren's Song, social defenses, staying in love, stolen identity, the fadeout, The Right Guy, the shootout, true love, unavoidable losses, unhappiness, unhappy loves, unhappy women Down Under, unsuitable loves, vulnerability, Westerns, writers
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“Writing”
“Writing” I grew up among people whose most-oft-voiced concern was whether they would get their book, or next book, written. Without the book, the life-worth dwindled down to a small pile of ash, as my child’s mind pictured it. It … Continue reading →
Posted in Academe, Culture, Evil, history of ideas, Literature, Memoir, Philosophy, Power, Psychology, relationships, Spirituality, The Examined Life, Theism, Work, Writing
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Tagged "A Good Look At Evil", "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", academe, alienation, American woman, Augustine, Authenticity, author, becoming a writer, Bildungsroman, books, brainwashing, childhood, coming-of-age books, confessions, conversion, critics, despair, double-binds, editors, explanatory hypotheses, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectuals, Jane Cullen, Jewish Theistic essence, Leo Bronstein, literary ambition, literary criticism, narrative, philosophical articles, publishing, real life, referee, rejection letters, reviewers, Rousseau, Russians, secrets, university press, writers, writing
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“Burnout”
“Burnout” I am suffering from burnout. Until the other day, I hadn’t noticed it as a specific complaint. The symptoms? A sense that nothing means anything any more. Every climb of the ant up the anthill will be followed by … Continue reading →
Posted in Culture, Faith, Friendship, life and death struggle, Memoir, Psychology, relationships, Spirituality, The Examined Life, Work
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Tagged alienation, balance, bio-rhythm, bodily deterioration, creation, Creator, deadlines, deconstruction-of-identity, exhaustion, existential angst, friendship, funerals, Genesis, hypochondria, intellectual burnout, Leviticus, meaninglessness, metaphysical despair, over-tiredness, over-worked, Rabbi, rest, sabbath, study group, symptoms, Torah, vacation
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“Death”
“Death” In the 1787 painting by Jacques-Louis David, Socrates is about to drink the hemlock. That was the execution method to which he was condemned by an Athenian jury for the crime of asking too many philosophic questions. Cebes, one … Continue reading →
Posted in Academe, Art, Culture, history of ideas, life and death struggle, Philosophy, Political, Psychology, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman
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Tagged alienation, ancient philosophy, Athens, barbarians, Cebes, death, End-of-Life, fear, fear of death, Greece, Hellas, Jacques-Louis David, learning how to die, little deaths, nothingness, Socrates, soul, suffering, The Examined Life, the great equalizer, women and death
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