Tag Archives: fate

Real Life and the Philosophic Life

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Abigail

Real Life and the Philosophic Life Is there any connection between the two? The book I recently fell in love with, John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story, was heartening to me on two fronts. First, the American philosophers, whose … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, freedom, friendship, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immortality, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, nineteenth-century, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, social construction, social conventions, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, time, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the divine Plato", 19th century, 19th century optimism, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American optimism, American Philosophy, archives, Athenian street, Athens, Australian materialism, autobiography, Baruch Spinoza, business mentality, Cephalus, Charles Darwin, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conventionality, counter-culture, Darwin, Darwinian Laws of Nature, David Stove, David Stove's "Against the Idols of the Tribe", despair, determinism, dialogue, Divine intervention, Evolutionary theory, faith in progress, fate, fictional narrative, go along to get along, God as Witness, God's action, God's role, honesty, John Kaag, John Kaag's "American Philosophy: A Love Story", justice defined, limits of honesty, love life, luck, made up stories, memoir, native grain, New World, overcoming despair, personal pathway, philosophy's tools, Plato, political justice, Pragmatists, promise keeping, providence, pursuit of truth, road less traveled, role of chance, romantic risks, satire, Socrates, Socratic dialectic, Socratic method, Spinoza's Ethics, the God factor, The Name, Tom Wolfe, Tom Wolfe's "The Kingdom of Speech", true love, true stories, truth seeker, truth telling, unconventionality, what rings true, William James, William James' "The Will To Believe" | 2 Comments

“What the Fortune Cookie Said”

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Abigail

“What the Fortune Cookie Said” In the last few weeks, whenever we’ve brought home supper from the Chinese take-out place, and opened the fortune cookie, mine has been deplorable. Things like, “When climbing the hill of difficulty, don’t slip and … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, 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, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A.P.A., Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic audience, academic journals, academic publication, achievement, aftermath, American Philosophical Association, Amy Reuther PT, anonymity, Ariadne's Thread, blog, blogging, broken bones, burka, c.v., celebrity, China, Chinese take-out, classified information, colleagues, collegiality, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, destiny, Dewey Lecture, dream warnings, Eastern and Western medicine, elusiveness, Epilogue, fame, fashion, fate, felicity, final chapter, fortune, fortune cookie, fulfillment, government secrets, Greek mythology, healing, hero, heroine, hiding, ill-fortune, ill-luck, injury, introverts, invisibility, invited lecture, labryrinth, life goal, life quest, luck, mending, Minotaur, modesty, New York City, night life, obscurity, peer-reviewed, performance, philosophical journals, preface, primary care doctor, privacy, Prologue, public figures, public intellectuals, public persona, publicity, readership, recovery, recuperation, rehabilitation, revealing clothes, Richard J. Firnhaber acupuncturist, self-concealment, short skirts, significant coincidences, social media, social networks, Success, synchronicities, Theseus, university press, writers, writing | 2 Comments

“Where Is God?”

Posted on December 15, 2015 by Abigail

“Where Is God?” We flew to Southern California this week, to look in on my father-in-law. He lives in a town near San Bernadino, the now-famous site of the latest mass murders. Over the four-day period of our trip, while … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, autonomy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, mind control, mortality, nineteenth-century, past and future, peace, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, 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, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged adventure stories, adventures, afterlife, afterlife rewards, air travel, anthropologists, authority, bad guys, believers, boyhood, buccaneers, care, classroom discipline, classroom disruption, crewmen, Dante's Inferno, destiny, dying, faithfulness, falsehood, fate, field work, God, golden rule, good guys, Good Orderly Direction, guilty minds, heaven and hell, heroes, ideas, ideology, Jurgen Ziewe's Vistas of Infinity, love of neighbor, Loyalty, magic, mass murder, maturity, mistaken ideas, mutaneers, mutineers, piety, pirates, Portuguese fishing village, punishments, realism, respect, responsibility, rewards, Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, San Bernadino, sea captains, seamen, security, Southern California, Success, survival, symbolism, the Other, the political animal, the speaking animal, treasure, triumph, truth, unbelievers, victimizers, victims, Victor Zammit, victory, violent jihadis | Leave a comment

“Men!”

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Abigail

“Men!” For some years I had a brilliant friend, male, with whom I used to talk far into the night about the most sublime and transcendent matters. We were sufficiently drawn to one another to be lovers, other colleagues … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, art, culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, friendship, gender balance, masculinity, relationships, spirituality, the problematic of woman | Tagged character, colleagues, con-artistry, coquetry, desire, fate, flattery, friend, ideal, ideality, intention, intuition, lovers, man/woman friendships, Masculinity, money, moral fragility, morality, philosophy, Plato, platonic relationships, repentance, rip off, sincerity, sublime, transcendent conversation | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: fate

“Men!”

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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