Tag Archives: opinion shapers
Real Life Returns
Real Life Returns I’ve just finished writing and footnoting an article, exploring new territory, with potential impact in a controversy that’s been roiling opinion-shapers for decades. Tonight I sent it to an editor at an influential journal of opinion who … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, books, childhood, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, politics of ideas, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, twentieth century, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail’s debut, animal characters, bad kids, Bagheera the black panther, Baloo the Bear, bungalow colony, Camp Hilltop, childhood friendship, controversial essay, falling flower pot, famous victory, few mourners, fighting injustice, fighting words, fisticuffs, grown-up stuff, influential review, Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue”, journal of opinion, kid stuff, kudos, Mowgli, Old Stony Road, opinion shapers, pyrrhic victory, real life, receptive editor, rich and famous, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, scholarly article, social flop, summer camp, summer playtime, the unexpected, unfair combat, Watchung hills of New Jersey
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The Thrill of Admiration
The Thrill of Admiration These days I’m reading Jacob Howland’s wonderful book about Plato’s Republic, the great dialogue that shows how hard it is to teach virtue in the political arena. At the same time, I’m mentally settling down … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, books, bureaucracy, childhood, 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, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, 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, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, 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, 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 a long romance, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", admirers and detractors, Adolf Eichmann, Aristotle, “call no man happy”, buffetings of public opinion, Chaim Tchernowitz, death and glory, deserved honors, fall from grace, fame and fortune, Hannah Arendt's Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, history’s big stage, history’s unfair verdict, history’s verdict, inflated reputation, Jacob Howland’s Glaucon’s Fate: History Myth and Character in Plato’s Republic, Jewish history, legacy, lost reputation, lucky in love, mental programming, mindless bureaucrats, named professorships, Nazi bureaucracy, opinion shapers, Plato, Plato's Republic, posterity's verdict, posthumous reputation, public disfavor, public esteem, Rav Tsair, reputation, reversals of fortune, risks to happiness, Solon of Athens, the Holocaust, the just and the unjust, the just man, the race well run, uplifting versus defaming a reputation, victims and perpetrators, W.H. Auden's In Memory of W B Yeats, writers and philosophers
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A Misremembered Woman
A Misremembered Woman I found a book to read for the flight from Philadelphia to Ontario, California, this past week. It was about a woman named Sabina Spielrein. I’d never heard of her, but she’s an important figure in the … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "The Love Cure", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", abuse of power, alpha males, biology and socialization, blotting a reputation, Carl Jung, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, creative empathy, creativity, culture heroes, death and rebirth, death instinct, desire stylized, doctor/patient relationship, driving women crazy, erasure of woman's intellectual legacy, erotic union, essentialism, female sexuality, feminine concepts, feminine ideals, Femininity, Feminism, feminist rehabilitations, Freud's Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, intellectual competitors, intellectual women, Jung's archetypes, male abuse, Male Power, male preserves, medical malpractice, mistress, mythic motifs, name calling as diagnosis, Nazi invasion of USSR, opinion shapers, perversion of influence, Phyllis Chesler, Phyllis Chesler's "Raped By Carl Jung Then Murdered By The Nazis" 11/6/17, Russia in the 1920s, Schizophrenia, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, social construction of gender, Soviet persecution, the Freud/Jung correspondence, The Freud/Jung Letters The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung ed.William McGuire, The Mothers, the psyche of a man, the soul of a woman, the unconscious, therapeutic malpractice, unwomanly women, What does woman want?, winners and losers, woman culture heroes, women novelists
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A Good Look at Evil
A Good Look at Evil Last Friday the galley proofs arrived for the new edition of my book, A Good Look at Evil. When the first edition came out, decades back, Temple University Press nominated it for a Pulitzer prize. … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, art of living, autonomy, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, motherhood, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, relationships, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "the talent in the room", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academe, academic eminence, academic research, Adolf Eichmann, ahead of its time, Betty Friedan, blurbs, book publishing, collegial relations, Eichmann's Argentine transcripts, endorsements, Eric Voegelin Society, Evil, Famous feminists, feminine self-erasure, first edition, flattery, founding mothers, galley proofs, genocide, Gloria Steinem, good and evil, good philosopher, Holocaust, Holocaust memories, keeping current, life story, Lionel Trilling, literary honors, living one’s story, mass murderer, Nazi thinking, non-fiction narrative, Norman Mailer, opinion shapers, philosophers, philosophic literacy, preface, professional recognition, professional renown, public intellectuals, Pulitzer Prize, reprint, second edition, Simone de Beauvoir, SS, Susan Sontag, Temple University Press, the Eichmann trial, the narrative view, Wipf and Stock
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A Funny Thing Happened to Philosophy (on its way to the deepest depths)
A Funny Thing Happened to Philosophy (on its way to the deepest depths) Recent projects of work have put me back in contact with a strange business in which philosophy had a strange part to play. In the 1920’s, as … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, status, suffering, terror, terrorism, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged argument chains, Authenticity, average man, average opinions, Beethoven, being-there, being-toward-death, bloodbath, careerism, classroom philosophizing, collapse of trust, country music, currency and trust, currency and value, Dasein, deep thought, dishonor, Edmund Husserl, Emmanuel Levinas's Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence, Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity, expulsion of Jews, fall of German mark, generations of thinkers, genius, German defeat, German professoriate, Hank Williams's Your Cheatin' Heart, Hannah Arendt, History of Philosophy, human decency, inflation crisis, Jewish mentor, Jewish students, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, Nazi party, new foundation, opinion shapers, outmoded worldview, personal destiny, philosophic betrayal, philosophic competition, philosophic depth, philosophic genius, philosophic influence, philosophic legacy, philosophic loyalty, philosophic rivalry, philosophic Romanticism, philosophic stardom, primeval, public intellectuals, Rector at Freiburg, spellbinding lectures, strange business, the best and the brightest, the human face, ultimacy, University of Freiburg, University of Marburg, Ur source, victors and losers, World War I, World War II, worldview, young windbag
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Memoirs, True or False?
Memoirs, True or False? Readers of this column are reminded from time to time that I recently finished a memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, and am looking round the publishing business to see if any editor/publisher will put up … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, 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, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "a dog in that fight", 19th century Denmark, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal's Tales of Rav Tsair, academe, aetheists, akedah, autobiographical, being misinformed, believers, bequest, betrothal, biography, boat launch, broken engagement, Columbia class of 1925, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conflict of duties, Copenhagen, defamation, Diana Trililng's The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling, Diana Trilling, editor, ego-driven, formative experience, generous renunciation, Grandpa, hagiography, higher purpose, intellectual influence, intimacy, jilted girl, Joakim Garff's Kierkegaard’s Muse: The Mystery of Regine Olsen, Kierkegaard's Diary of a Seducer, Kierkegaardian influence, last will of Kierkegaard, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, magic mountain, male friendship, manipulation, married life, masks of ego, memoir, Mrs. Regine Schlegel, Natalie Robins' The Untold Journey: The Life of Diana Trilling, neurotic suspension of the ethical, New York intellectuals, obedience to divine commands, opinion shapers, philosophy, publisher, publishing business, realm of duty, Regine Olsen, self-will, shallow dogmatism, spiritual seduction, submission to the divine, Swiss sanitarium, Swiss TB treatment, TB treatment, teleological suspension of the ethical, The Binding of Isaac, the ethical level, the seducer, the spiritual level, theology, trust in God, University of Lausanne, woman as ideal
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