Tag Archives: metaphysics
Women’s Knockout Fights
In Les Liaisons dangereuses, the 18th-century French novel of cynicism by Choderlos De Laclos, the seductress goads her partner in erotic predation to break off his affair with the lady whose virtue had been surrendered to him. His break is … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 18th century novels, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academic friendships, academic women, battle for public opinion, believing evil gossip, betrayed friendships, beyond good and evil, bottom rung of the social ladder, breaking implicit social rules, charisma and breaking social rules, competition between women, dance of seduction, defamation seen as power, defamatory gossip, defenseless femininity, disarmed women, enjoying friend’s differences, enjoying one another's differences, erotic competition, ethical glory, ethical judgment, feminine prestige, fight for prestige, French novels, friendships with colleagues, gossip as power play, hidden intrigue, intelligent malice, Les Liaisons dangereuses by Choderlos De Laclos, Les Tricoteuses, life on a moral foundation, living one’s philosophy, losing trust, malicious conspiracy, manipulation of victim status, metaphysical relations, metaphysics, moral discernment, novels of cynicism, opposites attract, painful reminiscence, parental circle of friends, parental death and power changes, people of moral authority, philosophical friendship, playing the victim, power dynamic and parental death, prestige and women, pretended victimhood, pretending to be the victim, seducer, seductive conspiracy, seductress, slander is always believed, social aggressiveness, social conspiracy, social disagreements over underlying values, social fall, social ladder, social rule breaking for personal advantage, social shunning, social trust, social warfare, the cat’s away the mice will play, the knitting women, the politics of gossip, Viking, Viking ancestry, when friendship ends, woman friend, woman who knows where to strike at another woman, women and social power, women as subtle, women as subtle fighters, women know women’s vulnerability, women's rivalry, women’s knockout fights
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As Philosophy Goes …
I hold the view, borrowed from G. W. F. Hegel, the nineteenth-century’s primo philosopher of history, that philosophy plays an oversized role in shaping human events. So do earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, global warming periods, plagues and nasty fights over water … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, 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, female power, 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, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic martyrdom, academic power struggles, American Philosophical Association, Ann Gary, APA’s Proceedings and Addresses, are people like machines, brainwashing, can machines replace people, can you live inside your philosophy, Catholic convert, cognitive psychology, communicating across difference, competition between underdogs, David Chalmers, Eleonore Stump, Epistemology, facial recognition, fallacy of scattershot condemnation, fashionable ideas, feminist philosophy, feminist quarrels, forced confessions, groupthink, Hegel, human knowledge vs AI, human suffering, human thinking and AI, Hypatia, idealized knowledge, Incommensurable Otherness, intellectual autobiography, Jennifer Nagel, John Dewey Lectures, Jonathan Schaffer, learning models, logical positivists, Mariana Ortega, mechanist materialism as worldview, medieval logic, metaphysics, mind/body problem, moral one-upmanship, opposition to women in philosophy, people compared to machines, philosophical account of ultimacy, philosophical fashions, philosophical friendship, philosophizing about human suffering, philosophy and nonquantifiable experience, philosophy and the future, philosophy and worldviews, philosophy as a profession, philosophy as a truth-seeking discipline, philosophy as cultural influence, philosophy as life-shaping, philosophy lectures, philosophy of history, philosophy transcends the tyranny of fashion, philosophy's political influence, physicalism, physicalism and reductionism, physicalist worldview, Plato's view of knowledge, prediction errors, primary and secondary qualities, primary qualities, pulling moral rank, Reign of Terror, right opinion vs knowledge in Plato, Saint Augustine, Salem witch trials, sexism, the politics of philosophy, theory of everything, thinking machines, Thomas Aquinas, true knowledge vs opinion, Vienna Circle, wisdom as true knowledge, wisdom knowledge vs everyday knowledge, women in philosophy
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Woman’s Search for Meaning
Woman’s Search for Meaning I’ve talked two friends out of committing suicide. Don’t recall exactly what I said, but I do know what went into my general approach. First, I ignored their existential/metaphysical pronouncements, eloquent as they were. Life, they … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, 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, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", absurdity, alternative healing, betrayal of trust, canceled engagements, canceled speech, chance happenings, charlatan healers, clues to the plot, Coincidences, contemplating suicide, correct diagnosis, crisis of meaning, desecration, desecration of woman, despair, dislocation, distance healing, Divine interventions, divine/human partnership, existential anxiety, expectations frustrated, focused mind, friendship, God as Co-Author, hopeful signals, indifferent world, invisible crisis, invisible suffering, life crisis, living one’s story, loss of grip, loss of meaning, meaningful life, meaningless world, mental healing, mental labyrinth, metaphysical materialism, metaphysics, mind and body, mind and matter, Mind Control, MRI's, negative energy, neuropathy treatment, Nor'easter, novelistic lives, ordinary miracles, personal defeat, power outage, precognition, preserving self image, Providential happenings, public speaking, quieted mind, Raiki healing, reorientation, rescheduling, saving the story, search for meaning, self image, sense of self, senselessness, small defeats, speaking events, spiritual malpractice, spiritual seduction, spiritual temptation, suicidal thoughts, suicide, suicide prevention, the right name, Thomas Hardy's Tess of The d'Urbervilles, travel plans, true north, Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, world out of joint
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Are the Stories We Live True?
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
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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
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“The Big Picture”
“The Big Picture” Why do we need philosophy? There are entire philosophic orientations, Wittgenstein’s is one, holding that philosophy as traditionally practiced is something to be cured of, and that the only thing philosophy can usefully do is to cure … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, chivalry, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, 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, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, slave, social climbing, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "man will be a god to man", "the best lack all conviction", "the moderns", "the worst are full of passionate intensity", administrators, alienation, automobile manufacturers, autonomous man, autonomous woman, bankers, Battle of Lepanto, Battle of Tours, biblical world view, botanists, chefs, church authority, Church Fathers, Classical world view, common experience, communism, conscience, cosmology, cultural self-condemnation, cultural self-reproach, disaffiliates, disvalued Jews, dualism, expertise, experts, facism, fly in fly bottle, free will, Galileo, Galileo's telescope, Gates of Vienna, geologists, globalization, grammarians, Greco-Roman world view, Hebrew Scripture, house painters, ice cream from the hardware store, identity theory, intelligent will, Islamism, Israelite world view, Jihad, language of specialists, lawyers, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Materialism, metaphysics, micro-particle physicists, mind as brain, mind/body, Modernity, naturalism, newscasters, novelistic lives, Ontology, ordinary language, Patristic writings, personal identity, personal life, philosophic cure, philosophic therapy, philosophical puzzles, philosophy, photographers, physicalism, poets, political Islam, priests, puzzle pieces, qualia, quarrel of the ancients and the moderns, reductionism, religion, religious authority, scientism, secularlism, self-assertion, sins of the West, social life, specialists, supervenience, The Bible, the mind/body problem, the will, the will to power, W.B. Yeats' "The Second Coming", Western Civilization, Wittgenstein's philosophical investigations, Wittgensteinians
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“Reality and Unreality”
“Reality and Unreality” Reality or unreality – does it matter? As I sometimes mention here, Léo Bronstein was my father’s best friend and a kind of godfather to me. One of the many things he did for me – for … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, art, autonomy, childhood, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, mysticism, ontology, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged acupuncture, anomalies, Bellevue Hospital, childhood trauma, circus, clues, Communists, communists in the closet, decoding, delusion, detective story, detective work, discernment, dumbwaiter, eavesdropping, evidence, family, fathers, freak show, freaks, friendship, Holocaust memories, Holocaust rescue, humiliation, illusion, Léo Bronstein's Fragments of Life Metaphysics and Art, Leo Bronstein, madness, mentorship, metaphysics, midgets, musicians, mystery, New York City, New York cops, normality, past lives, paterfamilias, patriarchs, Phyllis Chesler's Women and Madness, proof of insanity, reality, reality checks, refuting instance, relevant facts, Richard Firnhaber acupuncture, Russian soul, seduction, seductive genius, sensitivity, society, STD treatment, The Underground, theatrical, tragedy, unreality, Upper Bohemia, venereal disease, vulnerability
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