Tag Archives: loyalty to origins
How I Got My Philosophic Theme
How I Got My Philosophic Theme As far as I can recall, it was a specific event, leading to a particular experience, that gave me the defining theme of the work I’ve done since then in philosophy. I’d gone uptown … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reading, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic politics, academic seminar, cat's away mice can play, collegial relations, Columbia University, don't bore God, family friend, getting God's attention, God as personal, God as Witness, good v evil plotline, hating God of Israel, human visibility to God, intellectual competition, Leo Bronstein, living a true story, loyalty to origins, metaphysical vision, naivete as armor, philosopher's motivating themes, philosophic argument, philosophic colleagues, philosophic counter-argument, philosophic experience, philosophic theme, pretended purity, social weaponry, struggle between good and evil, the life of argument, the religion of Israel, the test of dialectic, theological anti-semitism, unquestioned trust, vision on New York subway, what is a Jew?, What is an anti-semite?, writer's primary datum
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Loyalty to Origins
Loyalty to Origins* What you and I would like to achieve in our identity politics is purity. We don’t want to be double — or a double-crosser. We want to be single-minded. As Leo Bronstein, whom I’ve cited before in … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, the examined life, the problematic of men, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Anne Fadiman’s The Wine Lover’s Daughter, Barbara Fisher, battle of words, British acculturation, character challenge, Clifton Fadiman, college friendships, Columbia archives, Columbia class of 1925, establishing authenticity, friends and rivals, getting each other’s number, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s “Inventions”, identity ambivalence, identity loyalty, identity politics, identity purity, ignoble victories, Jewish authenticity, Jewish intensity, Jewish Theological Seminary, John Vaughan, Leo Bronstein, Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling/Henry Rosenthal correspondence, literary powers, living as a Jew, loyalty to origins, male friendship, male rivalry, male status, non-Jewish surnames, obsessively Jewish, one-upmanship, passionately Jewish, Sidney Hook, spiritual adventure, stylish imperturbability, talented classmates, the false and the genuine, The Menorah Journal, the name Trilling, Trilling/Rosenthal friendship, unflappable snobbishness, verbal sparring, who is more authentic, writers fictionalizing writers, writers on writers, youthful genius
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New Year Resolutions?
New Year Resolutions? It’s 2018, the firecrackers have ceased their explosive booming sounds, the subzero temperatures are keeping everyone indoors who can manage to stay there – except for the people like the ones on crews working to repair downed … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, chivalry, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, 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, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 1099 forms, 2018 calendar, address book, affirmation, afterlife, calendar app, cheerfulness, clutter, contemplation, crews on powerlines, curing worry, death and dying, deathbed busybodies, discarding books, emotional baggage, endangered species, file cabinets, file folders, final preparations, finding books, firecrackers, go fight city hall, going into the light, Henry David Thoreau, human survival, inherited baggage, keeping accounts, last arrangements, Leo Bronstein, letting go, life's surprises, loyalty to origins, making one's peace with God, mantra, Mrs. Emerson, New Year's resolution, nothin' I can do about it, oversimplification, past and future, peace of mind, personal inventory, personal worry, planetary worry, political worry, project completed, projects abandoned, purging files, purity, quarreling with God, quiet desperation, Ralph Waldo Emerson, simplify simplify, sloganeering, sorting books, staying indoors, sub-zero temperatures, survivor's tasks, tax data, the New Year, the next world, the old year, the unexpected, Thoreau dying, Thoreau's laundry, Thoreau's Walden, world-wide worry, worry, worrying less
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Betrayal
Betrayal Jerry and I have been attending the American Academy of Religion (AAR) meetings in Boston this weekend. That’s the venue at which Jerry continues his guiding activities in the subfield of “Theology Without Walls,” which he introduced at the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, 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, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, 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, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged AAR, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic conferences, academic panels, American Academy of Religion, bad news, betrayal, betraying one's origins, Boston, Boston conventions, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural absolutes, cultural appropriation, cultural borrowing, culture as the matrix, discomforts of flying, epiphany, expanding boundaries, expanding identity, globalism, God's character, hotel inconveniences, human experience, hybrid cultures, infidelity, inspiration, judgment calls, lost suitcase, loyalty to origins, minor disasters, multi-culturalism, personal choice and culture, personal integrity, philosophers, philosophy, politics of ideas, politics of religion, power relations, religious identity, risks to identity, risky choices, selling out, spiritual experience, the Divine dimension, the language of power, theologians, theological remedies, theology, Theology Without Walls, tradition, trial and error, TWW, TWW project, war by other means, what's at stake, whoring after strange gods
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