Tag Archives: French philosophers

Ave Atque Vale (Hail and Farewell)

Posted on August 19, 2025 by Abigail

The other day I scanned the internet for news of ex-friends who’d stayed significant in my memory. “We quarreled,” as French philosopher Sartre said about one former friend, the philosopher Merleau-Ponty, “a quarrel does not matter. It’s just one more … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, 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, 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, mysticism, 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 academic colleagues, academic dramas of character, academic politics, aristocratic decadence, aristocrats and plebeians, Augustine's boyhood theft, ave atque vale, bad debt, belated farewell, code of conduct, code of honor, concepts of logic, creative logician, decadence, dramas of character, drunk driving, ex-friend, fateful choice, filicide, former friends, French philosophers, friends beyond death, friends beyond the grave, friends’ lives, hail and farewell, honorable losers, labyrinth of man-woman relations, legal redress, loan between friends, logic tutor, love of wisdom, man/woman labyrinth, Merleau-Ponty, moral candor, Moral crisis, moral discernment, moral price of job security, moral price of tenure, moral risk, moral temptation, outward repentance, paying one’s dues, philosopher ex-friend, philosophical colleagues, philosophical conversation, philosophical curiosity, playing with good and evil, politics of experience, pompous philosopher, pompous wordiness, potential dishonesty, prep school and manhood, quarrels of friends, reformed character, reformed church-goer, reformed rake, remembered friends, risking one’s honor, Sartre, selling out, selling your vote, sense of honor, significant friends, symbols and words, toying with wrongdoing, trained emotional suppression, training to suppress feelings, unrepaid loan, upright citizen | Leave a comment

Are the Stories We Live True?

Posted on February 28, 2017 by Abigail

Are the Stories We Live True? Good people try to live the sorts of stories that will solve the problems of their lives as reasonably and realistically as they can. Meanwhile, evil people aim to mess up good people’s stories. … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, chivalry, class, conformism, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, scientism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", abstraction, abuse of power, adultery, Anglophone philosophers, authority figure, Bernard Harrison's What Is Fiction For: Literary Humanism Restored, Bertrand Russell, chronology, Continental philosophers, creative living, credence, credulity, deconstruction, deconstructionism, delusions, early Wittgenstein, empiricism, Evil, evil people, false consciousness, fantasy, Ferdinand de Saussure, fictional stories, French philosophers, Freudian unconscious, Gilles Deleuze, giving credit, good people, goodness, graduate student, incredulity, Jacques Derrida, manipulativeness, marital cheating, metaphysics, Michel Foucault, narrative, narrative theory, narrative view, narrativity, novels, Ontology, outside the text, philosophical analysis, plot line, scholarly attribution, seductive ploy, self-mistrust, self-trust, sense data, skepticism, social embarrasment, Steven G. Smith's Full History: On The Meaningfulness of Shared Action, suppressed stories, suspicion, the marginal, the powerful, theory, theory of being, true stories, ultimate reality, verbal vertigo, wish fulfillment | Leave a comment

“Losers”

Posted on August 26, 2014 by Abigail

“Losers” The Loser is the epitome, the spittin’ image, of what we don’t want to be. One time I shared, with a fireman friend, how it feels when you walk down the street feeling like one. “And everybody knows,” my … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, life and death struggle, philosophy, psychology, relationships, social conventions, the examined life | Tagged abuses, aggression, birthright, blessing, crime, desolation, despair, economics, Edward Said, Emanuel Levinas, empathy, envy, fathers, firemen, French philosophers, hatred, Jacob and Esau, losers, manipulation, motivation, one-upmanship, philanthropy, psychology, rejection, self-destructiveness, sibling rivalry, sociobiology, solitude., street smarts, the Other, theories, violence, web of belief | Leave a comment

“Friendly Fire”

Posted on August 5, 2014 by Abigail

“Friendly Fire” Sartre and Merleau-Ponty were among the more influential of the twentieth-century’s French philosophers. They had been friends, but Sartre had broken with Merleau-Ponty over some political disagreement. When Merleau-Ponty died in mid-life, prematurely, Sartre felt free to write … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, femininity, feminism, friendship, Hegel, literature, memoir, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, relationships, the problematic of woman | Tagged better angels, café, eulogies, female friendship, first love, fjords, French philosophers, friends, good and evil, heart of darkness, Hegel, Joseph Conrad, Merleau-Ponty, moral choice, morality, Nietzsche, Nordic women, Paris, political disagreement, quarrels, Sartre, sin, unresolved relations, wicked mother | Leave a comment

Tag Archives: French philosophers

“Friendly Fire”

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