Tag Archives: cynicism
What I Learned When I Almost Died
A funny thing happened when Jerry and I were about to give talks to a group at the Princeton School of Theology. On our way to another building, where the meeting was to be held, I stepped forward on what … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, freedom, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, identity, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, martyrdom, master/slave relation, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, reductionism, relationships, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, secular, self-deception, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, time, Truth, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic attitudes, accidental injury, anxiety, anxious state of mind, at the mercy of doctors, bureaucratic indifference, compartmentalization., concealed joy, Coup de foudre, criminal irresponsibility, cynicism, disclosing hope, doctor-caused deaths, doctors' mistakes, doctors' near-fatal mistakes, escaping doctors' fatal mistakes, escaping iatrogenic fatality, explaining anxiety, falling in love, fatalities of medical bureaucracy, fear of vulnerability, gaslighting, hidden joy, hip fracture, hope discovered, iatrogenic emergency, institutional blindness, institutional insensitivity, institutional irresponsibility, intensive care, journal evidence of mental states, journal evidence of states of mind, journaling, Land of the Living, life-saving ambulance crew, life-saving remedies, medical accidents, medical bureaucracy, medical emergency, medical facilities, medical gaslighting, medical irresponsibility, medical miscommunication, medical power, medical scandal, medically caused near-death, merciless irresponsibility, misplaced faith, misplaced trust, murder by mistake, near death, near-death by mistake, near-death from doctors, optimism revealed, patient vulnerability, Princeton School of Theology, recovering morale, recovering optimism, revisiting earlier moods, revisiting states of mind, romantic breakthrough, romantic openness, romantic stroke of lightning, romantic vulnerability, subjective discontent, the unconscious, unconscious repression, unexpected joy
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Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions: Preface, Part 2
Today, Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) carry forward last week’s discussion of Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let’s see how their discussion continues. *** Jerry: Having said that true love … Continue reading
Posted in action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, 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, 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, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, secular, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, twentieth century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", 1940s America, Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American home front, American Jewish experience, anti-Semitism in the U.S., Authenticity, childhood in wartime, childhood memories of war, consequences of war, critical thinking, cultural critique, cynicism, espionage in America, Ethics, existential courage, existentialism, experience vs innocence, family history, fighting complacency, fighting tyranny, Fulbright scholars, generational trauma, generational wisdom, genocide prevention, German-American Bund, growing up during war, growing up with history, heroic mothers, historical consciousness, historical impact, historical memory, history and personal identity, history of fascism in America, Holocaust, Holocaust remembrance, Holocaust survivors, human nature, human resilience, idealism, impact of small actions, impact of war on children, individual agency, individual courage in war, individual vs society, intellectual life, intelligence and espionage, Jerry L. Martin, Jewish history, Jewish identity, Jewish resilience, lessons from history, lessons from the past, lessons from World War II, modern philosophy, moral philosophy, moral responsibility, moral seriousness, naivety vs realism, Nazi sympathizers in the U.S., Nazi threat in America, New York City, overcoming disillusionment, Paris, personal history, personal transformation, philosophical reflection, philosophy, philosophy of history, philosophy of love, protecting democracy, public intellectuals, pursuit of truth, Raphael Lemkin, refugee aid, remembering history, resilience of the human spirit, resistance to evil, Romanticism, second-generation Holocaust awareness, significance of choices, skepticism, skepticism vs hope, social commentary, survival and memory, the role of memory, the role of memory in history, true love, U-boats near New York, unsung heroes, war and innocence, war and morality, war and philosophy, war’s impact on childhood, wartime ethics, wartime New York, wartime refugees, wisdom, wisdom through adversity, witnessing history, World War II, Yorkville, Yorkville in wartime
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What’s Unconscious?
What’s Unconscious? In recent columns, I’ve written about the mysterious effects of mind on body and their unpredictable intertwinings. One reader has left Comments on these columns, twice urging me to read John E. Sarno’s book, The Divided Mind: … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, bigotry, books, childhood, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, 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, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "the past isn't past", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Philosophic Foundations of Feminism", amoral id, analysand, anger internalized, appetitive spirited and rational, Aristotle's psychology, cure for neuropathy, cynicism, dangerous emotions, ego repressing the id, failure of chivalry, female powerlessness, Freud's Dora: An Analysis of A Case of Hysteria, Freudian explanations, gaslighting mechanism, gaucherie, higher psychic levels, iatrogenic, id ego and superego, John Sarno's The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders, mainstream medical practice, man to woman disrepect, mind/body connection, moral lobotomy, prudent repression, psychogenic, psychological repression, psychosomatic, reductive explanation, seeing and seeing through, self-mistrust, somatic distractions from unacceptable feelings, somatic refusal, spiritual lobotomy, Sublimation, suffering somatized, the Freudian years, the gap in modern medicine, the symptom imperative, transcending negative experience, tripartite psyche, unconscious rage, undiscovered treatments for psychogenic illnesses, unwelcome advances, vulgarity, women misdiagnosed as hysterical
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My Mind Is Not My Brain
My Mind Is Not My Brain How much hangs on that denial – or on its contradictory, that my mind is my brain! If our minds are our brains, as I once thought, and as our educated contemporaries mostly still … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, medieval, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, past and future, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged ambition, anguish, anxiety, attitudes toward death, brain and memory storage, brain death, brain death and consciousness, cardiac arrest and consciousness, cardiac care, computers and brains, conscious state and neural correlates, cruelty, cynicism, dealing with death, death and denial, death as escape, death as the end, despair, Does God make a difference?, EEG, God hypothesis, God question, identity theory, intellectual courage, life review, localizing conscious experience in the brain, manipulativeness, Materialism, mind/body problem, MRI, NDE, NDE research, NDE studies, near death experience, oblivion, paradigm shift, PET, Philosophical Materialism, physicalism, Pim Van Lommel, Pim Van Lommel's Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, placebo effect, prejudice, reductionism and culture, reincarnation, right pathway, search for purpose, success fixation, surviving brain death, surviving death, terminal lucidity, the absurd, verifiable afterlife reports, willful blindness
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Is Beauty for the Birds?
Is Beauty for the Birds? We set up our deck fountain fairly late this summer and — as a result, it seemed – no birds came. For weeks, they just stayed away. This was very disappointing, since we watch them … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, books, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, health, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, ideology, idolatry, literature, masculinity, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, ontology, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, scientism, secular, sex appeal, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged aesthetic distance, aesthetics, architectural genius, Art, beauty, beauty as objective, beauty as sacred, beauty as subjective, birdbath, birds congregating, cynicism, deck fountain, disputing over taste, environmental harmony, gossip, groupthink, hopelessness, inwardness, outward form, painting seascapes, pornography, propaganda, propaganda in art, quality and quantity, relativistic sophisticates, Roger Scruton’s “Beauty: A Very Short Introduction”, rudeness, sparrows, suspending disbelief, taste, the eye of the beholder, the qualitative, the quantifiable, the sacred, The Sistine Chapel, The Taj Mahal, ugliness, ugliness in art, water coolers, wrens
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The Meaning of Meaninglessness
I’m reading a book by a philosopher named Susan Wolf about the meaning of life. Or rather, about the importance of meaning in a good life. What prompts such a book? you may ask. Susan Wolf explains that philosophers have … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, existentialism, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, mind control, modernism, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged curing depression, cynicism, definitions of the good life, depression, despair, empirical evidence, facts and theories, fashionable theories, finding your path, having a passion, human purposes, identity theory, life after death, life’s purposes, little things, meaning of life, meaning of meaning, meaninglessness, mind and brain, opinion shapers, passion for philosophy, personal quandary, philosopher’s books, philosophers, philosophic authors, pointlesslessness, quality time, quantity and quality, skepticism, socially constructed beliefs, socially constructed values, Susan Wolf’s Meaning in Life and Why It Matters, the absurd, the search for meaning, too brief to matter, too small to matter, value judgments, what happens when we die, worldviews
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Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions: Preface, Part 3
Today Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) carry forward last week’s discussion of her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let’s see how their discussion continues. *** *** Jerry: You just believed in … Continue reading →