Tag Archives: life aims
In the Hall of Mourning, There are Many Mansions
In the Hall of Mourning, There are Many Mansions Elmer Sprague passed away in his sleep, April 19th, 11:20 a.m. On July 17th, 2018, a friend got in touch to tell me he’d been scheduled for the gravest kind of … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Eternity, Ethics, Existentialism, Faith, Fashion, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, Guilt and Innocence, Health, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Immortality, Jews, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Masculinity, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Ontology, Past and Future, Peace, Philosophy, Poetry, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, Spirituality, status, 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, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged argument with God, beauty of youth, Biblical characters, brain surgery, collegial friendship, collegiality, death, death and spirituality, death of Moses, doing what one says, End-of-Life, faithfulness, field of action, ghost in the machine, grownup life, heroic treatment, innocence, integrating thought and action, life aims, life and death, life lessons, meaning of death, meaning of life, medical experts, medical verdicts, midrash, mind and body, mind/body harmony, mind/body problem, original sin, philosophy as learning how to die, post-surgical report, put together life, relative innocence, reliability, Sarah as a bride, Socrates, the rough and the smooth, theological doctrines, through thick and thin, timely death, truth seeker, untimely death, wrongly accused, young David, young Joseph
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“Ideas and Real People”
“Ideas and Real People” When I need consolation, when sorrow exerts its hard claims, I turn instinctively to what Plato would call the realm of forms: beautiful things and ideas that are clear and significant. When our friend Leo … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, Childhood, Chivalry, Christianity, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Courtship, cults, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, 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, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Law, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, pacifism, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, Romanticism, 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, Terror, terrorism, 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, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged A.J. Ayer, aiming at weak spots, Albert Einstein, Anna Akhmatova, anti-fascist, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Boris Pasternak’s Dr.Zhivago, British Embassy, British eyes and ears, British Foreign Office, centrality of ideas, Chaim Weizman, classical art, classical bas reliefs, classical serenity, classical statues, clear ideas, communist party, communist politics, communist revolution, completeness, consolation, cultural definition, cultural vulnerability, Culture, culture against itself, culture defined, culture shapers, destroying a culture, dispatches from Washington, Drew Pearson, eternal achievement, extremism, family tree, fear and shame, George Kennan, Grunewald Crucifixion, Hassidic lineage, hegemony, high culture, humanistic culture, intellectual culture, intellectual friendship, intellectual moderation, intellectuals denounced, intellectuals in the 1930’s, intellectuals purged, intellectuals under terror, intelligentsia, interesting man, Isaiah Berlin, Italian civilization, Italian communist, J. L. Austin, Leo Bronstein, liberal culture, life aims, life under tyranny, living for ideas, Lord Halifax, making a difference, Metropolitan Museum, Michael Ignatieff’s Isaiah Berlin: A Life, moral compromise, motorcycle accident, Mussolini’s dictatorship, nuanced diplomacy, opinion shaper, Oxford education, paisley, Party Line, Plato, Plato’s realm of forms, post-communist revolution, power of ideas, Public Intellectual, reading in prison, Riga Latvia, significant ideas, Soviet Union, Stephen Spender, Strasbourg, strategic mind, Stuart Hampshire, sturdy mind, the Russian soul, things of beauty, Tsar’s overthrow, twentieth century intellectuals, tyranny, USSR, utopian delusions, Virginia Woolf, Walter Lippman, war of ideas, Washington rumors, weakness in culture, Winston Churchill, World War II
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A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition
A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition The author’s advance copy of my expanded second edition of A Good Look at Evil, arrived Friday. The look of it is entirely gorgeous. To have such endorsements, from opinion-shapers of recognized importance … Continue reading →
Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Afterlife, Alienation, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, Health, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, History, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Immortality, Institutional Power, Jews, Journalism, Judaism, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Masculinity, master, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Messianic Age, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, Mortality, Mysticism, non-violence, novels, Ontology, Oppression, Past and Future, Peace, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, Poetry, Political Movements, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, radicalism, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, Violence, War, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 20th century culture, A. E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Adam Kirsch, advance copy, analytic philosophers, ancient Greeks, arête, Aristotle, at the mercy of appetite, attractive lies, author's aims, authority figures, be the best that you can be, Biblical narrative, blurbs, book cover, book publication, celebrity, champion athlete, climbing the mountain, Columbia class of 1925, common culture, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural ancestors, cultural forebearers, cunning of evil, dialogue, Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen", elegiac poem, endorsements, evil's reality, excellence, facing facts, fame, father/daughter relationship, feminist activists, filial piety, flawless performance, force of circumstance, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, Gail Godwin, gifted novelist, glory, going wrong, hazards of life, Henry M. Rosenthal, ignorance, inflated egos, inter-ethnic conversation, interdenominational conversation, international conversation, jacket copy, life achievement, life aims, life goals, life of pleasure, literary critics, literary talent, manipulative purposes, missing your moment, misuse of words, moral vision, narrow minds, narrowness, noble aims, nonwestern cultures, Olympic athlete, opinion shapers, pagan culture, peak performance, Phyllis Chesler, pleasure, power of evil, public disfavor, public favor, public intellectuals, pursuit of pleasure, reality checks, revised edition, seizing your moment, snares of pleasure, The Bible, The class genius, the longest conversation, The Olympics, the struggle with evil, the vices, top of one's game, true lies, uncultivated mind, virtue, Western culture, William Lycan, winning the match, winning the race, wrong intentions, x-ray vision
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