Tag Archives: philosophical friendship
A Good Look at an Old Evil
The title of this column plays off my first book, A Good Look at Evil. There I revisited some of the main philosophical ways of understanding evil before I offered my own view, exhibiting its power to illuminate a wide … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, 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, 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, medieval, 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, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, 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, terrorism, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, academic allies, academic ally betrayed, academic anti-semitism, academic friendship, academic friendship betrayed, academic ingratitude, academics celebrate atrocities, an old evil, Anti-feminism, Anti-Semitism and discourteousness, Anti-Semitism and politics, Anti-Semitism at Brooklyn College, Anti-Semitism unprovoked, Athens and Jerusalem, betraying a friendship, Brooklyn College’s History Department, cat’s away the mice will play, celebrating war crimes, civilization’s foundations, defending civilization, defending civilization against Anti-Semitism, discourtesy, evil of Anti-Semitism, global animus, global anti-semitism, horse sense, horse whisperer, Matthew Arnold’s Culture and Anarchy, moral disintegration, moral downfall, moral free-fall, moral requirement, moral requirement ridiculed, normality and abnormality, Oct 7 and jihad, Oct 8 and academe, perennial anti-semitism, philosophical colleague, philosophical friendship, philosophical friendship betrayed, political hatred of Jews, professional ingratitude, safeguarding Jews in academe, societal breakdown, spiritual implosion, sudden change of character, trivializing Oct 7, understanding evil philosophically, ungallantry, where there’s smoke there’s fire
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My Time-Out Is Over
I’ve had two refuges at the present phase of my life. To both I’ve repaired for weekly shelter from the main lines of my work, its thinking and varied obligations. So what for me constitutes the Life Obligation from which … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, 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, 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, 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, non-violence, 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, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", active non-listening, answering for your life, anti-semite's hatred for God, betrayal after death, betrayal by family friend, betrayal of dead friend, Columbia University, complicity with attacks on Jews, concealed betrayal, decisive prayer, denying Jewish history, empathy with cruelty, evading moral choice, expulsion of the Jews, false childlike simplicity, feigned naivete, God as our witness, God as witness to life stories, God of history, God on the timeline, guiding vision, hazards of life, hidden betrayal, hiding from history, holistic malpractice, honor and dishonor, horse-whisperer, illuminating vision, immoral neutrality, innocent nature vs guilty history, invisible to God, Jewish passion for God, key moment in the story, life obligations, life refuge, life-defining experience, life-defining prayer, living a defensible life, living in interesting times, moral amnesia, moral shelter, morally invisible, nature as refuge from history, nature vs history, orienting prayer, philosopher friend, philosophical colleagues, philosophical friendship, posthumous betrayal, praying in the subway, pretended simplicity, reactions to the Israel-Gaza war, refuge from history, signs of anti-semitism, spiritual vision, the Jewish Calling, time-out from history, what is a Jew?, What sort of God?, when no one's looking, when the cat's away the mice will play
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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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Paradigm Shifts
Paradigm Shifts We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews. To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them. That being the case (that we run around conceptually clothed, whether we … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Bible, Biblical God, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eternity, ethics, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, 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, theology, time, twenty-first century, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 4 Gospels, accosting lone females, Arun Gandhi’s The Gift of Anger, Christian creed, Christian missionary, Christianity, Christians, competing theologies, conceptual framework, condescension, conscientious objector, Crucifixion of Jesus, death of Jesus, devout family, dialectic, Doylestown Bookshop, empty tomb, flagrum, former Muslim, Gandhi’s influence, Interfaith dialogue, Islam, Isle Saint Louis, Jesus resurrection, love of truth, Mahatma Gandhi, medical student, Muslim missionary, Muslim/Christian debate, Muslims, Nabeel Qureshi’s “Seeking Allah Finding Jesus: A Devout Muslim Encounters Christianity”, New Testament, non-judgementalism, non-violence, pacifism, paradigm, paradigm shift, Paris, philosophical friendship, philosophically sophisticated, philosophy student, religious commitment, religious debate, satyagraha, secular faith, Shroud of Turin, Socratic argument, the Qur'an, worldview
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