Tag Archives: old friends
Where Are the Ex-Friends Now?
This is a week when I’ve been thinking about old friends who are, as it happens, ex-friends. Maybe it’s a special category of friendship. I’ve devoted a recent column to David, who was a valued philosophical colleague. Together we shared … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art of living, atheism, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, 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, 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, motherhood, 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, 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, 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
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Tagged a friend’s ghost, a life without distinction, a life without ideality, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, avoiding victimization, betraying expectations, betraying one’s heritage, beyond charisma, beyond charm, coming to manhood, communist party line, debts of honor, disappointing expectations, endangering one’s son, ex-friends, exploiting a friendship, fake spirituality, first love, forgetting one’s debts, funeral notice, gentleman who cheats at cards, honor and dishonor, idealizing and manipulation, intellectual trust, intellectual trustworthiness, life as a true story, mediocre philosophizing, message from beyond, misusing one’s charm, obit notices, old friends, painful self-repair, philosopher’s obit, philosophical adventures, philosophical colleague, philosophical exploration, philosophical fashions, philosophical ghost, playing the victim, politics of experience, pulling rank, reckless driving, reckless endangerment, regretting nothing, repairing one’s life, saving grace from the eternal feminine, selling one’s birthright, social predation, spoiling a life, spoiling one’s story, stern ghost, the eternal feminine, the eternal feminine leads us above, the Nothing nothings, thought experiment, timeline traduced, trading honor for security, trading integrity for security, unfettered thinking, uninspired paintings, utopian illusions, wasting one’s talent, women as victims, women idealized
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Remembrances
When people are no longer present to each other, or able – in an unforced way – to walk in and out of each other’s days, the risk is that spatial distance will become psychic distance. That’s when measures of … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, beauty, Biblical God, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged almost a saint, antebellum house, career comeback, career crash, closing a house, down to earth, Downeast Maine, emotional ties, family home, fixing the fight, friend as a witness, friendly silences, generational roots, getting tenure, groupthink, homesickness, jury bias, keeping old friends, lifelong friends, localism, longing for a friend, more fish in the sea, most beautiful girl, natural aristocrats, near saints, nostalgia, old friends, philosophy professor, philosophy students, Plato, reconstituting relationships, remembered years, remembering friendships, resilience, resisting defamation, resisting gossip, saints, small town approval, small town life, small town smarts, spiritual shelter, sports writer, stored in memory, surviving one’s parents, the face of love, unfinished friendship, winning a job fight, witnessing one’s story
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Life Review in Seattle
Life Review in Seattle We were in Seattle for a meeting of the Eric Voegelin Society. It’s a group within the American Political Science Association, probably the only such group that considers spiritual factors in its efforts to understand history. … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, law, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic egos, American Political Science Association, avoiding cynicism, Bill Gates, centralized economy, climate apocalypse, corporate law, economic incentives, economic inequality, economic predicaments, economic solutions, Elon Musk, Eric Voegelin Society, extracting life benefit, financial instruments, financial liability, financial soundness, global finance, good times and bad, high thinking, holding on to friendship, ideology and terror, Isaac Newtown, Israeli socialist kibbutzim, keeping our friends, life review, life smarts, modern economies, moving to Mars, nondogmatic academics, nontransparency, old friends, optimal options, PayPal, planetary doom, planetary pollution, playing the cards you're dealt, ponzi schemes, Seattle, Seattle ethos, silicon man, SpaceX, Swedish modified socialism, techie delusions, techie ethos, techie genius, truth seeking, understanding history, unequal rewards, women's friendship
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The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Argument
The Intelligent Woman’s Guide to Argument Arguing, in the philosophical sense, doesn’t mean quarreling. The term “argument” designates one or more statements, each capable of being true or false, which present the basis for a final statement called the conclusion. … 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, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, 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, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged actual human encounters, ad hominem fallacy, American Philosophical Association, analyzing argument situations, analyzing arguments, angry women, another woman’s marriage, answering with silence, anti-semitism, argument situations, argument stratagems, at a loss, bad argument, basis for knowledge, blindsided, body language, Christina Hoff Sommers, coded anti-Semitism, collegial friendship, collegial taboos, conclusion, contemporary feminism, covert aggression, covert anti-Semitism, criteria, critic of feminism, defenseless, false reasons, female friendships, feminine reasoning, feminist argument, feminist audience, feminist boundaries, feminist philosophers, fielding insults, flinging an epithet, friendship breakup, George Bernard Shaw's The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, guilt tripping, how to argue, informal logic, insulting your friend’s wife, intellectual boundaries, intellectual space, intelligent woman, irrelevant reasons, Jerry L. Martin, killing time, knowing better, linguistic consensus, loaded question, Logic, logic lessons, losing an argument, male combatant, male friendship, male quarrels, male/female combatants, man to man combat, masculine reasoning, my friend’s husband, neuropathy treatments, offending a wife, old friends, passive-aggressive insults, premise, preserving friendship, preserving social protocol, propositions, proving manhood, real life argument, real life argument context, reasoning, reasons to believe, responding to insults, self-respect, shared objectives, smiling insult, social insult, social self-respect, sound argument, speechless, statements, supporting an argument, term of art, textbook argument, the art of argument, theory of argument, unstated issues, valid argument, verbal counter-attack, virgin territory, women friends
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The Big City and Me
The Big City and Me I went to New York for an overnight last Thursday. This trip had been postponed for at least a year, during which I was dealing with one huge difficulty after another. Through the times and … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, 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/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 20th century critic, 51st Street, a writer’s honor, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Alice’s Teacup, authenticity and success, Barbara Fisher, Barnard College, biography, Cafe Sabarsky, catching spies, Columbia University class of 1925, con artist, conservationists, Diana Trilling, easy mark, embezzeler, FBI raid, feminist activists, FGM, formative experiences, Frank and Ada Graham, friend of the arts, German U-boats, German/Austrian 20th century art museum, Henry M. Rosenthal, hollow words, honor killing, ill-gotten gains, integrity, Laurin Raiken, Leo Bronstein, life savings, Lionel and Henry, Lionel Trilling, Maine people, male friendship, meaning what you say, Meyer Schapiro, mitzvah, mystically sensitive, Nazi spy, Nazi spy ring, Neue Gallerie, New York City, New York in World War II, NYU Gallatin Division, old friends, Phyllis Chesler, Phyllis Chesler’s A Politically Incorrect Feminist: Creating a Movement with Bitches Lunatics Dykes Prodigies Warriors and Wonder Women, Phyllis Chesler’s The New Anti-Semitism, political courage, power street, Public Intellectual, reunions, righteous action, saving the earth, sense of place, short wave radio, sisterhood, street smarts, teacher/student relation, The Big City, The Country Mouse and the City Mouse, U-boats off New York, Viennese café, you can go home again, you can’t take it with you
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Male Gallantry
Male Gallantry Like Edgar Allan Poe’s Raven, here’s a topic that’s been tapping on the casement of my mind during the past few weeks. It’s reminded me of an incident that happened some years back, when I was tenured, published … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, bigotry, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, 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, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged aborted courtship, academic philosophy, alternative cancer treatments, American Philosophical Association, becoming a theist, beleaguered woman, boring and middle-aged, Bullying, Certified Big Shot, collegial expectations, collegiality, cop out, Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, emasculated, false pretenses, feminist credentials, fireman friend, former buddies, gang’s all here, ganging up, going along to get along, groupthink, holistic cancer treatment, holistic treatments, jerking people around, joining the mob, life and death decisions, male gallantry, male weakness, male/female bullying, man into worm, old friends, outnumbered, philosophical atheism, philosophical theism, philosophy, phony feminist, professional life, pseudo-authenticity, pseudo-defender of the underdog, renewed courtship, ridicule, search for wisdom, siding with one’s adversaries, stab in the back, the queen of sciences, turning on a buddy, unmanly men, women and children last
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