Tag Archives: Nietzsche
The Theologian’s Wife
At the time I was at Columbia University, as a graduate student in philosophy as well as an Assistant in the Religion Department, Paul Tillich – a theologian of world stature in the twentieth century – was just a few … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, 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, 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, institutional power, 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, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, 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, 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
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Columbia Religion Department, Columbia University, commitments betrayed, communists and nazis, connecting the dots, deathbed farewell, denial of evil, emancipation as the excuse, escaping when Hitler takes power, female powerlessness, German politics, Germany between the wars, getting a look at Hitler, God of history, great man’s wife, great men who exploit women, great thinkers who betray women, Hannah Tillich, Hannah Tillich’s From Time to Time, Hannah Tillich’s memoir, Hitler rally, Hitler’s spell, honor under fire, impersonal God vs personal God, keeping one’s honor, lifelong friendship, long suffering wives, love at first sight, love surviving disappointment, love triangle, loving but not trusting, marital infidelity, marriage as lifelong voyage, meditation as emotional shelter, meeting great men, nazi’s uncanny speed, Nietzsche, open marriage, open relationship, Paul Tillich, Paul Tillich’s marriage, Paul Tillich’s widow, perceiving evil, personal betrayal, personal virtue, post-war Germany, recognizing evil, rekindled friendship, repressed jealousy, scorning bourgeois values, spiritual discernment, spoiling true love, the disappointed woman behind the great man, theologians and nazism, theological problems, theology professorships, Tillich in America, Tillich’s Biblical Faith, Tillich’s Biblical Religion and the Search for Ultimate Reality, Tillich’s Ground of Being, Tillich’s personal God, Tillich’s Ultimacy, ultimacy, Union Theological Seminary, victimization in marriage, virtue under pressure, weathering the storms of marriage, world class theologian, yoga and emotional shelter, yoga and meditation
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My Journey Within
Earlier today, in a momentous break with recent routine, I set aside time to be with me, Abbie. My aim was to step outside the drumbeat of each-hour-taken-over-by-its-ineluctable-task. I wanted to bracket all the tasks and ask the question: Am … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, 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, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, 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, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged a twosome with God, alchemist in his workshop, alchemy and secret doctrines, confessions, dating and "I know what you need.", defending identity, depth psychology, doing God's will, fear of God, Fear of intimacy, finding identity, finding one's self, friend as mirror, friendships that last through time, God and self-trust, God and the self, God sees me, God's will harmonious with mine, healthy mirroring, healthy responsiveness to differences in friends, heart-to-heart talk, hermetic wisdom, hidden depths, inner child, inner depths, inner truth, introspection, introspection and the unconcious, journey within, love lasting through time, maintaining identity, mental health, Nietzsche, perceiving one's wholeness, personal love and acceptance, personal relation to God, personhood and friendship, pseudo psychoanalytic manipulativeness, psychic surface and psychic depths, psychic wholeness, psychological health, psychological put downs, psychologizing as rudeness, psychologizing to gain power, psychology as seduction, recovering friendships, reunions with friends, seeing God, seeing one's self in the round, self and other, surface inconsistencies within psychic wholeness, time out, time out for friendship, unconscious motives, what's a matter yuh frigid?, who am I?, wholeness of self
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Philosophy on the Timeline
Philosophy on the Timeline The other day, I went to a new acupuncturist. We got to talking, I and the nice young man who’d been assigned to me for my initial session. From the forms I filled out as a … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, books, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, 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, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, Utopia, victims, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged acupuncturist, analytic philosophers, Aristotle, boredom in culture, curing history, defining a culture, Descartes, dialectical method, dialectical progress, evil and freedom, evil and narrative, evil in history, George Lucas' The Ordering of Time: Meditations on the History of Philosophy, goal of history, graduate philosophy study, GWF Hegel, History of Philosophy, history's dialectic, history's future discoveries, Husserl, life's adventures, long philosophic conversation, love of wisdom, method of dialectic, moral threats, moral victories, Nietzsche, optimism about history, pessimism about history, philosophic mistakes, philosophical passion, philosophy and evil, philosophy professor, philosophy's history, philosophy's lineage, philosophy's questions, Plato, progress in history, rabbinic method, rabbis and philosophy, refutation in philosophy, Socrates, superseded philosophers, Talmudic method, the longest conversation, theories of history, views of truth, world views
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Who or What Were Adam and Eve?
Who or What Were Adam and Eve? Unless you believe that the entire universe actually came into being at the divine summons 5,781 years previous to the New Year of September, 2020, with the two parents of the human race … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "David and Bathsheba", 17th-century philosopher, Achilles, Adam and Eve, Antonio Gramsci, Bereshit, Bible as fiction, Bible as myth, Biblical characters, brute power, bully’s rationale, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", cover story, creation ex nihilo, David and Jonathan, David and Saul, David the adulterer, David the warrior, David’s repentance, dialectic defined, dialectical personifications, embodied ideas, embodied spiritual stages, Erich Auerback’s Mimesis : The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, false consciousness, functional power, Garden of Eden, Gramscian view, hegemonic euphemisms, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Homer's Odyssey, Homer’s Illiad, human choices, in the beginning, King David, King Saul, literary characters, New Year 2020, Nietzsche, novelistic creation, Odysseus, original sin, Plato's Republic, Plato’s genius, political philosophy, power relations, Psalms of David, Rosh Hashana, social contract, Socratic dialectic, spiritual drama, spiritual moments, spiritual reality, spiritual space, spiritual temptation, study of myth, the human race, the state of nature, theoretical construct, Thomas Hobbes, Thrasymachus
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“Personality”
“Personality” More than once in these columns, I’ve mentioned my long-standing view that people live and die by ideas. Still, as I’ve come to recognize, that’s not entirely true. It has to be qualified. For example, it’s very hard to … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, power, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, 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
Tagged 1907-1914, abdication, adultery, authoritarians, Aztecs, belief system, bluff, Carnival, Catholic authoritarians, Catholic mystics, childish taunting, Classical culture, conquest, conquest of Mexico, conquest of the Western hemisphere, consorts of powerful men, corrigibility, cultural conquest, cultural consensus, death wish, debates, descent, Donald Trump, European conquest of New World, female vulnerability, Feminism, Freud, gamesmanship, God-to-people partnership, Greco-Roman civilization, group consensus, Hebrew Scripture, ID, imprinting, infidelity, inherited belief, intellectual rivalry, intellectual self-correction, Jesuits, let-downs, libido, Life Force, male force, malice, man to man, marital cheating, morbid imprint, natural force, Nietzsche, night of passion, nineteenth century Europe, nineteenth century European women, one wild night, paganism, passion, personal imprint, personal magnetism, personal weak spots, personality, Political Campaign 2016, political debates, political games, political malice, power games, power of argument, power of ideas, power politics, powerful men, powerlessness of argument, pre-Columbian Mexico, Presidential Candidates 2016, Presidential debates, Presidential politics, primal force, primitive force, primitivity, refutation, rivals, Schopenhauer, secular humanism, seduction, social acceptance, suicide, TB, TB sanatorium, teasing, Terror, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, trophy wives, truth-seeking, United States of America, universal rights, untamed paganism, untamed personality, Walpurgis-Night, widowhood, winning debates, woman's autonomy, woman's freedom, womanhood, world progress, World War I
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“Where Are We Now?”
“Where Are We Now?” Since my last column, I’ve been preoccupied with the long-shot nomination of me, by a kind colleague, to give the John Dewey lecture at the American Philosophical Association. That’s the lecture underscoring the link between the … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, motherhood, nineteenth-century, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Destry Rides Again", "Here be dragons", "the boys in the back room", "the girls in the back room", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Feminism Without Contradictions", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Getting Past Marx and Freud", Absolute Spirit, American Philosophical Association, amoral impulses, Analytic philosophy, Anglo-American Philosophy, APA, Australian philosophy, Authenticity, background assumptions, British Idealism, cartography, college orientation, conceptual clarity, conceptual muddles, conceptual obscurity, Continental philosophy, cultural paradigms, dance hall singers, David Stove, doctrine of the unconscious, empiricism, falsifiability, feminine flattery, Feminism, Freud, human liberation, human motivation, ideal languages, ideology, induction, inhibitions, jargon, John Dewey Lectures, liberation, logical empiricism, logical positivism, manipulation, Marlene Dietrich, men's liberation, militant feminism, Mind Control, Nietzsche, nineteenth-century philosophy, ordinary language philosophy, originality, philosophical explanation, philosophical maps, philosophy of science, privacy, programming, psychic layers, rape, reductionism, Schopenhauer, scientific paradigms, sensory experience, sex differences, social contructs, theoretical entities, traditional woman, twentieth century philosophy, women's liberation, work and life, zones of silence
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“Friendly Fire”
“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
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