Tag Archives: fork in the road

The Fork in the Road

Posted on August 5, 2025 by Abigail

* * * A realization visited me the other day. It had to do with lost friendships. I’d always pictured these losses as mere phenomena lying on the surface of life. In the depth, in the end – in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, Jesus, 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, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, 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, romanticism, science, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A Good Look at Evil by Abigail L Rosenthal, afterlife reunions, believing in oneself, betraying a friend, beyond good and evil, binding commitments, breakup differently explained, broken friendship, café regular, change of heart, changing philosophic commitments, character as destiny, choice with life implications, comfortable in one’s skin, consequential choices, credible defamation, death of friendship, deciphering life events, decisive choice, decoding life events, deep friendship, defamatory gossip, demoralizing the culture, drawing a moral line, erotic exploitation, Europeans and cafés, evil and reality, evil as philosophic concept, female athleticism, fork in the road, friendly opposites, friends and misunderstandings, friendship and trust, friendship destroyed, friendship through differences, friendships’ importance, hip, hipster, irreversible life-choice, journal for self-discovery, life choices, life energy misspent, losing life-force, losing one’s athleticism, loss of grace, lost friendship, lost self-command, lost vitality, lost zest for life, manipulative social relations, misunderstanding between friends, moral categories and reality, Nordic woman, persona as binding the future, philosophers and life strategy, philosophers and personal choice, philosophers and the outdoors, philosophic friendship, philosophy and life wisdom, reality as amoral, reality of evil, Reign of Terror, self-renewal in nature, sexual exploitation, sexual politics, sharing life’s lessons, social enemy, social life in cafés, social manipulation, solitude among café regulars, solitude in nature, superficial friendship, the real and the rational, the real is not the rational, two sides to the story, understanding evil, unshared memories, wearing shorts with authority, women philosophers, writing in cafés, zest for life | Leave a comment

Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions: Beginningwise, Part 2

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Abigail

Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, 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, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, 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, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", 1950s America, 1950s gender roles, 20th century femininity, Abigail L. Rosenthal, American vs French women, Americans in Paris, becoming a woman, culture shock, desirability, embodiment and identity, emotional vulnerability, erotic love, eternal ideas, existential truth, female authenticity, female coming-of-age, female identity, female philosopher, feminine authenticity, feminine dignity, feminine success, feminine truth vs universal truth, femininity before feminism, feminist history, feminist philosophy books, first love, fork in the road, French idea of romance, Fulbright scholars, fulfilled woman, gender and power, God of history, heartbreak, historical consciousness, historical God, human connection, intellectual woman, Jerry L. Martin, life of the mind, living in history, longing and regret, loss of innocence, love and identity, Marxism and seduction, Paris, Paris and romance, philosophic memoir, philosophy and concrete experience, philosophy and love, power dynamics in seduction, power of the feminine, Radicalism and seduction, real-world truth, Reductionism and seduction, romantic absolute, romantic awakening, romantic disillusionment, romantic failure, romantic identity, romantic vulnerability, sex and power, sexual awakening, sexual initiation, social boundaries, social conformism, social roles, spiritual integrity, spiritual integrity undermined, spiritual witness, Sublimation, transitory love, truth about life, values in the body, vulnerability, witnessing truth, woman philosopher, women and philosophy, women and social conformism, women and vulnerability, women as socially defined, women before feminism, women’s memoirs, young female philosopher, youthful turning point | Leave a comment

The Moral Markers

Posted on December 17, 2019 by Abigail

The Moral Markers From time to time, I pause to picture how the recent phases of my life would look to me if there were no God in the pictures. It’s a sort of thought experiment. Philosophers are given to … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, 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, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged abstraction, absurdity, agnostic, Atheism, atheistic world view, Authenticity, beyond good and evil, brute forces, complementarity in friendship, concrete experience, consequential decisions, constructive orientation, controlled experiment, cynicism, deleted datum, erasing evidence, experimental confirmation, experimental disconfirmation, false consciousness, fashionable abstractions, fashionable views, feigned belief, fork in the road, Friedrich Nietzsche, integrating experience, limited palette, loyalty v betrayal, Martin Heidegger, meaning of life, meaningful life, models of the ultimate, modern life, Modernity, moral choice, moral fork in the road, moral indices, moral markers, moral neutrality, no rhyme or reason, novelistic plotline, objectivity claims, opinion shapers, opposites attract, pointlessness, power relations, projection, random energy, reality as absurd, relationship dynamics, Social Darwinism, social pretense, survival of the fittest, Swedish descent, the Modern world, the Post-Modern world, theism, theistic world view, thought experiment, Valhalla, Vedantist, Viking worldview | Leave a comment

“Loyalty”

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Abigail

“Loyalty” For a good many years I had a close woman friend. She was also a colleague, thus for me among the most cherished of life’s treasures. We were very different types, almost polar opposites in our ways of responding … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, friendship, Hegel, history of ideas, literature, philosophy, political, relationships, the examined life, the problematic of woman | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal, beyond good and evil, choices, classical world, dragon ships, fork in the road, friendship, good and evil, Leo Bronstein, Loyalty, multiculturalism, Nietzsche, Nordic, origins, philosophy, purity, Success, Viking, women relationships | 1 Comment

Tag Archives: fork in the road

“Loyalty”

Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column

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