Tag Archives: Philosophical Materialism

We Don’t Die When We Die

Posted on June 30, 2026 by Abigail

It’s not over. One thing is certain. When we talk, when we act, when we commit ourselves to any project – big or small – when we retire for the night or rise for the day: sooner or later our … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, Industrial Revolution, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mortality vs immortality, 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, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Trauma, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged afterlife unknowns, Atheism, Caitlin Gibson’s The Washington Post article on deathbed visions, Christopher Kerr’s Death is But a Dream, credible deathbed experiences, cultural assumptions, cultural changes if death is not the end, cultural implications of surviving death, cultural worldview, Darwinian implications, death and taxes, death unpredictable, deathbed experiences, deathbed mending of misused life, deathbed moral repair, deathbed reunions with cherished places, deathbed reunions with departed friends, deathbed reunions with friends killed in battle, dying different for each person, end of story, end of the line, End-of-Life, exiting present time-and-space conditions, facing the past, fashionable nihilism, fashionable reductionism, fixing the past, hallucinations vs deathbed experiences, human mortality, intelligent survivors, interviewing the terminally ill, interviews of the dying, it ain’t over until it’s over, life concerns the living, manner of death unforeseeable, modern assumptions, modern emotional style, modern moral parameters, modern nihilism, modernity’s repressed nihilism, mortality not the end, oversimplifying human complexities, Philosophical Materialism, reductionism, refusing reductionism, repairing the past, research into dying, surviving death, surviving death and making life count, surviving death and reconceiving power, surviving death and revising the narrative, surviving death and social implications, surviving death vs nihilism, surviving death vs the absurd, the dead still concerned, the dead supposedly unconcerned, the great unknown, the nothing-but fallacy, where personal control stops | 1 Comment

One of a Kind

Posted on October 7, 2025 by Abigail

David Stove was a philosopher of the not-cut-to pattern kind. (Is that a kind? Just how many are there?) For example, he did not hesitate to kick the seemingly unassailable Charles Darwin in the shins for a train of errors … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, 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, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, 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, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, 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, Truth, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Getting Past Marx and Freud, academic history, academic philosophy, academic politics, academic rivalry, Analytic philosophy, Anti-Utopianism, atheism and suicide, Australian academe, Australian politics, Bill Lycan, candid correspondence, capsizing an orderly life, Charles Darwin, colleagues and conformism, commonsensical philosopher, concealing a sensitive soul, conservatism and liberalism, Continental philosophy, crisis overpowering coping strategies, cultural assumptions, Darwin and human motivation, Darwin’s theoretical shortcomings, David Armstrong, David Hume, David Stove, David Stove Archive, David Stove’s Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes Errors of Heredity and Other Fables of Evolution, dramatic life change, Edgar Allan Poe, empiricism, eulogy, ex-husbands, Feminism, first husband, gentlemanliness and politics, healthy common sense, ideology and academe, idols of the tribe, intellectual debts, John Bacon, kangaroos and black swans, Marxism, meritocracy, methodological empiricism and metaphysical materialism, Michael Devitt, moderation as lifestyle, non-believer, nonconformist academic, nonconformist philosopher, nonconformist thinking, obituary and posthumous friendship, overpowering crisis, philosophical absurdism, philosophical atheist, philosophical competition, philosophical conversation, philosophical correspondence, philosophical erudition, philosophical gossip, philosophical guide, philosophical Humean, philosophical marriage, Philosophical Materialism, philosophical pen pals, philosophizing with style, philosophy at Sydney University, Poe’s The Raven, political correctness, prayer for suicide victim, private despair, protecting a sensitive soul, providential divorce, providential life-turn, providential marriage, received views, research fellow, right wing and left wing, Roger Kimball, sacred cow, sensitive soul, shocking life-crisis, social conformism, suicide and afterlife, suicide and choice, Sydney Australia, Sydney University Staff Club, Trad and Mod Philosophy Dept, traditional and modern philosophy, tragic crisis in an even-tempered life, trendy philosophy, tyranny of one’s peers, tyranny of public opinion, unexpected crisis, University of Sydney, unsung heroes | 3 Comments

My Mind Is Not My Brain

Posted on August 9, 2022 by Abigail

My Mind Is Not My Brain How much hangs on that denial – or on its contradictory, that my mind is my brain! If our minds are our brains, as I once thought, and as our educated contemporaries mostly still … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, 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, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, masculinity, medieval, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, ontology, past and future, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, science, scientism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged ambition, anguish, anxiety, attitudes toward death, brain and memory storage, brain death, brain death and consciousness, cardiac arrest and consciousness, cardiac care, computers and brains, conscious state and neural correlates, cruelty, cynicism, dealing with death, death and denial, death as escape, death as the end, despair, Does God make a difference?, EEG, God hypothesis, God question, identity theory, intellectual courage, life review, localizing conscious experience in the brain, manipulativeness, Materialism, mind/body problem, MRI, NDE, NDE research, NDE studies, near death experience, oblivion, paradigm shift, PET, Philosophical Materialism, physicalism, Pim Van Lommel, Pim Van Lommel's Consciousness Beyond Life: The Science of the Near-Death Experience, placebo effect, prejudice, reductionism and culture, reincarnation, right pathway, search for purpose, success fixation, surviving brain death, surviving death, terminal lucidity, the absurd, verifiable afterlife reports, willful blindness | 6 Comments

For Love of the Argument

Posted on July 21, 2020 by Abigail

For Love of the Argument I first met Bryan Magee when he was visiting Sidney University’s Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy. My then husband was teaching there and I had been granted a nice little niche as “Research Affiliate.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, institutional power, journalism, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, secular, self-deception, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Where Theory Meets Chalk Dust Flies", Analytic philosophy, Anglo-American philosophers, Anthony Quinton, Aussie hospitality, Australian Materialist, B. F. Skinner, bad arguments, BBC television series, blackboard of Mitchell Faulk, blackboards of mathematicians, Bryan Magee, Bryan Magee’s Men of Ideas: Some Creators of Contemporary Philosophy, bushwalk, civil status of a contradiction, conceptual contests, David M. Armstrong, Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, Down Under, early and late Wittgenstein, fish or fowl, fly out of fly bottle, forms of life, good arguments, hatred of human beings, hatred of reason, hospitality blues, innate syntax, inner space, Iris Murdoch, Jessica Wynne, language games, life of argument, life of reason, Linguistic Behaviorism, Mathematician Mitchell Faulk, meaningful sentence, Member of Parliament, metaphysical claims, misology and misanthropy, Noam Chomsky, novelist and philosopher, philosophical dialogues, philosophical fashions, Philosophical Investigations by Wittgenstein, Philosophical Materialism, philosophical naturalism, philosophical views, photo survey, picture theory of meaning, Plato, Plato's Phaedo, realm of reason, research affiliate, rush to judgement, Sidney University, Socrates, stimulus-response model, talents in collision, Trinity College Oxford, Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, woman novelist, woman philosopher, worldly man | 1 Comment

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