Tag Archives: despair
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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Easter and Passover
Easter and Passover This year, the climactic commemorative celebration days for each religion actually did overlap. Which raised questions about their possible relationship, or at least how they stand today vis a vis each other. I tend to agree with … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, medieval, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abel's sacrifice, acting acceptably to God, after the Fall, asymmetry of the sexes, Athens and Jerusalem, Cain and Abel, Cain's hatred for Abel, celebration days, Christian doctrine, Christianity, Christianity and culture, Christianity and Judaism, Classical thought, clear of mind, country gospel, despair, despair as premature, Divine proximity, Easter, eating the apple, escaping despair, eviction from Eden, Exodus story, explaining the Crucifixion, face to face, Gan Eden, Genesis 3, gifts of Christianity, God's Jewish pilot project, historicity of the Bible, Holy envy, humanity as sinful, Interfaith dialogue, irreparable faults, irreparable mistakes, Israelite experience, Jewish Theological Seminary, Jewish/Christian coexistence, Jewish/Christian reciprocal forgiveness, Jews contribution to the world, Judaism, Judaism for export, Krister Stendahl, life review, living in history, living realistically, living without disguises, longest hatred, longing for transcendence, meeting God in action, Michael Wyschogrod, original sin, Passover, Passover and theology, politics of religion, pure of heart, Rabbi Irving Greenberg, rabbinical students, religious celebration, religious coexistence, religious differences, religious discussion, repairing relationships, resolving misunderstandings, Resurrection of Jesus, telling good from evil, the charge of deicide, The Garden of Eden, the historical condition, the human condition, the lens of sin, theological discussion, Union Theological Seminary, work obligation, world without Christianity
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A Moral Crisis
A Moral Crisis In A Good Look at Evil, I portray a moral crisis as a time when one’s story comes to a stop. The halt isn’t called because of an external obstacle. It comes from within. What causes this … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, memory, mind control, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, 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, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic praise, Authenticity, autobiography, behavioral norms, circumstantial constraints, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, crisis of faith, cultural beliefs, despair, disappointed expectation, disappointed hopes, Eric Voegelin Society, evil’s game, evil’s target, favorable auspices, favorable portents, ideal publisher, invisible script, let down, life path, life possibilities, life story, losing the script, loss of honor, loss of trust, making sense of one’s life, Moral crisis, multi-dimensional, narrative view, nonfiction novel, nonfiction story, personal beliefs, physical constraints, propensities and talents, publisher’s rejection, rejection, rejection letter, self-realization, self-trust, selfhood, Sense of identity, sense of self, shrewd adversary, social interdependence, social reciprocities, stopping the story, stratagems of evil, suicidal intent, thrownness, thwarting the story, true life novel, trust in the unseen, vulnerabilities, women friends, wrecking a life, youthful episodes
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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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The Psalms
The Psalms The other day, and night, I was having a dark night of the soul. It was about A Good Look at Evil again, and the recurrent struggle to get my book shown correctly on Amazon. My patient readers … Continue reading
Posted in action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, non-violence, novels, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a good book, abandonment, Amazon books, assertiveness training, Balmedie Scotland, bedtime reading, beleaguered widow, boring Psalms, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", dark night of the soul, despair, divine human intimacy, English-speakers, F. Scott Fitzgerald, feeling abandoned, feeling overwhelmed, frustration, hardback and paperback, Hebrew and English, invisible God, Jesus' last words, Judeo-Christian Civilization, Louisville Kentucky, modern translations of the Bible, non-detachment, non-sublimation, orphans, personal concern, pompous philanthropist, Psalm 22, Psalms, publication date, reading Psalms, real estate acquisitions, research assistant, revised versions, Scotland golf course, self-concern, talking politics, the English language, the human condition, The King James version, Trump's career, Trump's character, unconcealedness, virtuous life, widows and orphans, Wipf and Stock
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“Living in History”
“Living in History” That’s a theme of mine, though it’s easier to give the theme a name than to say exactly what it means. I can hone in on it by at least by saying what it’s not. If you … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, chivalry, Christianity, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, 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
Tagged absurdism, accidents, action, Advaita Vedanta, against the odds, agnosticism, agnostics, anomalies, anti-religious, anxiety, apostasy, argument, atheists, being fired, being human, belief system, Brooklyn Bridge, censorship, certainty, Christianity, clarity, close-mindedness, closure, cognitive virtues, communism, conceptual defeater, corrigibility, corrigible hypotheses, cosmetic concerns, counter-example, cultural relativism, data, deconstructionism, despair, dialectic, disappointment, disillusionment, dissenters, Divine Presence, doubt, doubters, dread, empowerment, epistemological doubt, Eric Voegelin's "Autobiographical Reflections", evidence, evidence for God, facism, Faith, false consciousness, false gods, fears, fixed idea, Freudianism, genius, getting pregnant, getting sick, Gnosis, God, guidance, Hinduism, historicizing, historiography, History, honesty, hope, hopeless situations, hopelessness, humility, hypotheses, Idealistic Monism, Ideologues, inconstant faith, inner certainty, Intellectual fashion, intellectual reversal, intellectual rigidity, Islam, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judaism, knowledge, lifelines, misanthropy, misology, moral realism, Party Line, philosophy, Plato's Phaedo, police state, problem of history, Procrustean bed, reality, refuting instance, religionists, religious people, repression, Right and Wrong, rigidity, Sartre's "Hope Now", serene faith, shattered nerves, Shekinah, skepticism, Socrates, subjective relativism, sure-footedness, talent, the half-dark, the Other, the true God, theists, uncertainty, unconscious doubt, unpredictability, writer
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