Tag Archives: philosophic friendship

For the Love of Wisdom

Posted on June 22, 2021 by Abigail

For the Love of Wisdom When I first began my graduate studies in philosophy, I’d be told – in so many words as well as body language – that any residual hopes of finding wisdom in this field should be … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, law, literature, love, masculinity, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, motherhood, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a life of one's own, academic philosophy, almost a saint, ancient Athens, ancient philosophic schools, ancient philosophy, Anglo-American Philosophy, believing in nothing, Biblical historicity, biblical patriarch, Brandeis University, brilliant woman, chief rabbi, classical ideal, classical schools, classical studies, comemorating forebearers, Continental philosophy, detecting illusions, dialectic, Downeast attitudes, escape velocity, Freudian psychoanalysis, Henry M. Rosenthal, History of Philosophy, honoring one's father and mother, idealizations, illusions and projections, Leo Bronstein, love of wisdom, meaning what you say, meditative practice, Mother, multiply cultured, nihilism, Odessa, painful aspirations, pedagogic Q+A, personal influence, philosophic dialogue, philosophic friendship, philosophic illusions, philosophic influence, philosophically sophisticated, philosophy, philosophy degrees, Pierre Hadot's What Is Ancient Philosophy?, psychic reconfiguring, psychoanalytic cures, Rav Tsair, spiritual insight, teaching tools, verbal contests, wisdom, words and lives aligned | Leave a comment

Back by Popular Demand: It’s Hegel!

Posted on January 26, 2021 by Abigail

Back by Popular Demand: It’s Hegel! Hegel is one of the philosophers from whom I’ve learned a lot. Though he was born and died in nineteenth-century Germany, he’s still timely. In the Anglo-American sphere, the question I get is, “What’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art of living, autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, 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, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, 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, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 19th-century philosophy Anglo-American philosophy, academic scandal, acquiring wisdom, administrative regulations, belief and identity, blacklisting, brute force, cancel culture, caste system, civil society, collegial friendship, contextual knowing, Continental philosophy, Corneille, cultural knowing, damn-fool scrape, deathbed regrets, decoding fiction, democratic infrastructure, democratic institutions, denouncers denounced, destroyed status, dishonoring, dominant group, Empiricists, enemy of the people, false beliefs, federal system, fictional characters, freedom unalloyed, French Revolution, G.W.F. Hegel, German philosophy, getting smart, guillotine, he said she said, historical forces, homo sapiens sapiens, human fairness, human governance, human unfairness, identity politics, inability to lie, inherited privilege, instant freedom, involuntary, Jane Austen, life achievement, life of ideas, lost standing, Marxism, Marxist materialism, mass executions, material cause, means of production, mediating institutions, metaphysical idealism, moral high ground, mutual mercy, mutual understanding, natural disasters, novelistic, Oppression, personal identity, philosophic friendship, plagues in history, political bullies, political center, political denunciation, political dissenter, political mobbing, popular demand, power dynamic, power relations, power to the people, professional standing, protective truths, pulling moral rank, raw data, Reign of Terror, revolutionary aims, sense perception, Shakespeare, shared fantasy, social standing, student/professor eros, the general will, tricoteuses, true beliefs, unconscious power, victim power, voluntary, voluntary associations, who seduced whom, world views | 2 Comments

Truth and truths

Posted on December 1, 2020 by Abigail

Truth and truths It was early in my philosophy major at Barnard College when a professor returned a paper of mine, to which he had given a less than stellar grade, with the comment, “By now you should know better … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, afterlife, art of living, autonomy, books, contemplation, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, freedom, friendship, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, Jews, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, time, twentieth century, victimhood, victims, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Anglophone philosophers, atomic facts, atomic propositions, Cheryl Misak’s Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers, clarification, concentration camp, concentration camp survivor, Divine Truth, early Wittgenstein, Epistemology, Gandhi, Gandhi’s Experiments with Truth, God is Truth, Holocaust, Holocaust survivor testimonies, honesty, ideal certainties, integrity, kinds of truth, language and reality, lying, Nazi official, ordinary experience, personal integrity, philosopher’s biography, philosophic dialogue, philosophic friendship, philosophy major, postulated entities, pragmatism, protestant pastor v Nazi, Ray Monk’s Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius, realm of ideas, refuting instance, reliabilism, scientific truth, self-trust, the test of experience, the what and the who, truth, truth as cash-value, truth as what works, truths, Wittgenstein’s Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, world of truth, Young India | Leave a comment

Read it Here First! My Obit!

Posted on October 27, 2020 by Abigail

Read it Here First! My Obit! All this week, Jerry and I have been attending to what I call “Last Arrangements.” Though we’re not expecting to kick off any time soon, you never know, and one of the chores I’ve … 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, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, 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, 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, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, 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, 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.J. Ayer, Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s “A Hegelian Key to Hegel’s Method”, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s “Feminism without Contradictions”, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s “God and the Care for One’s Story”, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s “The Right Way to Act”, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, academic arbitrator, academic job fight, anthologized philosophy articles, Augustinian confession, banality of evil, Barnard College, Bernard Williams, Brooklyn College Philosophy Department, Chaim Tchernowitz, chance episodes, chief rabbi of Odessa, Chronicle of Higher Education, College de France, Columbia class of 1925, Columbia M.A., Columbia University, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, defending Holocaust victims, defending introspection, dialectical life, doctoral exams, doing philosophy, evil life, falling in love, feminine wisdom, filial piety, Fulbright Scholar, good life, Hannah Arendt, Hebraist renaissance, Hegel in a Hegelian way, Hegel’s humanism, Henry M. Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal’s The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way, Hermeneutics, High School of Music and Arts, Holocaust, hometown Manhattan, honors in philosophy, Jacob Taubes, Jerry L. Martin, Jerusalem street name, John Bacon, last arrangements, life as a search for truth, Marx and Freud, Memorial Minute, Morality in the Modern World, obituary, Penn State, philosopher’s daughter, philosophic friendship, philosophic life, Proceedings and Addresses, providential intervention, Rachelle Rosenthal, Rav Tsair, self-corrective narrative, sensitivity measure, spoiling the story, SUNY at Stony Brook, Sydney Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, Sydney University, The class genius, The Jewish Daily Forward, the lives of women, The New York Post, the Sorbonne, University Seminar on Hermeneutics | 7 Comments

Wingeing, Death and Debility

Posted on July 31, 2018 by Abigail

Wingeing, Death and Debility Years ago, I was in the Australian Blue Mountains, climbing the rockiest, thorniest, steepest wilderness trail that I could ever hope never to find. We were a troop of philosophers from Sydney University’s Department of General … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Biblical God, books, chivalry, Christianity, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged afterlife evidence, Australia, Blue Mountains of Australia, bush walk, Christian salvation, conversion, conversion to Judaism, death as the end, death of friends, departed friends, evidence of things unseen, fashionable doubt, fashionable opinion, fashionable skepticism, heaven, how to die, how to live, intelligent hope, kvetching, mikvah, mortality, outdoorsmen, philosophic friendship, Philosophy Department, preparation for death, remembering the departed, rock climbing, self-knowledge, Socrates, soul and body, Spinoza, stiff upper lip, stoicism, surviving death, Sydney University, the afterlife, The New York Book Review, The New York Review of Books, the next life, vale of tears, wilderness trail, wingeing, women friends | 2 Comments

Sex, Honor and Philosophy

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Abigail

Plato wrote a dialogue, The Symposium, on this very topic. The setting is a drinking party held to celebrate the victory of one of the guests in a poetry contest. They go round the circle, each guest standing up to give a speech on the Great Question of the evening: What is love? Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, 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, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, 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, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Candid Camera", Alcibiades, ancient drinking party, ancient Greeks, austerity, blacklisting, breaking eggs, Camelot, celibacy, Diotima, disproportionate punishment, eros, eros and biology, eros and health, eros and memory, eros and politics, eros and the beautiful, eros and the good, eros of ambition, eros of social life, erotic disempowerment, erotic empowerment, erotic motives, erotic sin, holier-than-thou, injured pride, love object, love of wisdom, man/woman love, musicals, Parisian café, philosophic friendship, Plato, Plato's dialogues, Plato’s Symposium, pleasure, poetry contest, preserving femininity, preserving masculinity, professional death, professional honor, reparations, romantic speeches, Russian soul, safe space, same-sex love, seclusion, seduction, self-protection, sex and dominance, sex and revenge, sexual harassment, social change, soulmate, The Academy, the man/woman ratio, the mating game, the secret of love, The Symposium, transcendent perfection, virtue signaling, What is love? | Leave a comment

“Marriage”

Posted on June 14, 2016 by Abigail

“Marriage” Marriage has always seemed to me a great mystery. Clearly it has a political aspect. To most people, this is at least somewhat apparent. In an earlier American era, the negative politics of single womanhood was quite obvious. Take … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, chivalry, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, nineteenth-century, ontology, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a positive mystery, actualized potential, aging virgins, Authenticity, “It’s a Wonderful Life, ” Jimmy Stewart the actor, bashert, biochemical criteria for romance, brides-to-be, busted, change in being, Christmas movies, compatibility criteria, compatibility of philosophers, courage, effort in marriage, falling in love, fear, female friendship, Films, friendship, fulfillment, God & marriage, great wives, happily-married wives, human status, imprudent confidences, intimacy, life capital, loss of friendship, loss of rank, loss of status, marital adventures, marital prestige, Marriage, marriage and status, marriage as destined, mystery, mystery of marriage, narrative, Nathaniel Hawthorne’s House of Seven Gables, necessary pains, necessary secrets, negative politics, ontological change, outranking, paranoia, philosophic friendship, philosophic papers, philosophic prestige, politics of marriage, positive power, rabbinic view of marriage, realistic fear, risks in marriage, romantic eligibility, Salem witch trials, secret of marriage, self-integration, single womanhood, social prestige, social status, spinsters, status of women in Muslim world, suppressed possibilities, talking it out, Texas panhandle, the feminine condition, threatening candor, unearned status, unmarried women, Upper East Side, virgins, wedding rings, white nights, women friends, Yoga centers | 2 Comments

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