Tag Archives: philosophy
“Philosophy”
“Philosophy” As a little girl, I would set the lunch table extra slowly so that I could overhear the philosophic conversations between my father, Henry M. Rosenthal, and Léo Bronstein, his closest friend. Understanding not a word, I still liked … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, dialectic, femininity, history of ideas, philosophy, political, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Analytic philosophy, Australian materialism, élan vital, Bergson, Camus, communism, Continental philosophy, dialectic, Enlightenment, fascism, Femininity, Freud, George Weigel, Henry M. Rosenthal, human conversation, laws of history, Leo Bronstein, meaningful life, Newtonian science, Nietzsche, philosophy, progress, reality, Social Darwinism, technology, The Great War, Utopianism, WWI
2 Comments
“Fun”
“Fun” Whenever I really had fun, I hadn’t sought it and never called it that. What times am I thinking of? There was the time a select group of us young colleagues, who were fired for resisting the powers that … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, friendship, literature, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions
Tagged academe, adolescence, artifice, awkward, childhood, colleagues, constraint, contrived, freedom, friendship, fun, Greek myth, high-school, horses, Les Halles, Marcel Proust, Paris, philosophy, Procrustes
Leave a comment
“Loyalty”
“Loyalty” For a good many years I had a close woman friend. She was also a colleague, thus for me among the most cherished of life’s treasures. We were very different types, almost polar opposites in our ways of responding … Continue reading
Posted in culture, friendship, Hegel, history of ideas, literature, philosophy, political, relationships, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal, beyond good and evil, choices, classical world, dragon ships, fork in the road, friendship, good and evil, Leo Bronstein, Loyalty, multiculturalism, Nietzsche, Nordic, origins, philosophy, purity, Success, Viking, women relationships
1 Comment
“All About Love”
“All About Love” On a wintry Parisian evening, I was sitting with my Czech friend Anna in Chez Maurice, one of the seedier cafes on the rue de Tournon. A group of young Russians were within earshot, one holding forth … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, erotic life, friendship, philosophy, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Anna, Arts, burden, Guess, Jerry L. Martin, love, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mr. Right, Paris, philosophy, professor, relationships, Romance, Russian, Russian language, suffering, teaching
Leave a comment
“What Kind of a God?”
“What Kind of a God?” I have been following, with a mixture of emotions — including curiosity and claustrophobia — C. S. Lewis’s account, in Surprised by Joy, of his conversion to theism (belief in a personal God) from his … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, desire, faith, gender balance, history of ideas, life and death struggle, literature, masculinity, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, psychology, social conventions, the examined life
Tagged Absolute, anthroposophy, élan vital, Britain, C.S. Lewis, conversion, divine, England, Henri Bergson, holistic healing, honor, human desire, Materialism, New Age, occult, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford University, philosophy, prayer, prophetic, reality, sex, Spinoza, SUNY, Surprised By Joy, theism, theosophy, World War I, yoga
Leave a comment
“Success”
“Success” When I was about twenty-five, I said to a friend, “I thought, when I’d be twenty- five, I’d be at least wonderful. But I’m not.” What did I mean by “at least wonderful”? I think it meant, at home … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, cool, culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, feminism, friendship, gender balance, history of ideas, literature, masculinity, philosophy, political, relationships, sexuality, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Al-Quds University, Art, belle of the ball, Brandeis, Brandeis University, career, classical antiquity, Corporate ladder, failure and success, female philosopher, female professor, Fine art, friendship, Greek philosophy, Jerusalem, Jews, Kabbalah, Leo Bronstein, life goals, Marriage, paideia, philosophy, popularity, prophecy, Romance, Sari Nusseibeh, spirituality, Success, true love, twenty-five year old woman, wallflower, working woman, wunderkind
3 Comments
“Finding Mr. Right”
“Finding Mr. Right” To marry off Abigail was never a cinch. My undergraduate years passed in a women’s college to which I commuted from a home that interested me more than my professors did, much less the callow young male … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, feminism, gender balance, history of ideas, masculinity, philosophy, political, psychology, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged American woman, Chronicle of Higher Education, female friendship, Feminism, Feminity, Finding Mr. Right, Gender, gender roles, Long-distance calling, love, Marriage, Masculinity, Mr. Right, New York City, Paris, philosophy, relationships, Romance, Sydney, Western Wall
4 Comments
“My Brilliant Career”
“My Brilliant Career” The title above is from an Australian film of some years ago, whose heroine decides to refuse the hand and society life of the handsome suitor she loves, and instead to set forth on the solitary struggle … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, cool, culture, dialectic, femininity, feminism, friendship, gender balance, philosophy, political, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged History of Philosophy, Marriage, My Brilliant Career (film), People, philosophy, Thought, United States, Women
Leave a comment
“Cool”
“Cool” It is a fact of social life – perhaps a bizarre fact – that needful and strenuous efforts can be overshadowed by someone, anyone, who is dubbed “cool.” It’s a praise word that shines on the just and the … Continue reading
“Invisibility”
Toulouse-Lautrec, ‘Ce qui dit la pluie’. “Invisibility” Invisibility can signal erasure. Qanta Ahmed’s In the Land of Invisible Women, subtitled A Female Doctor’s Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, describes shopping for the author’s first abbayah (burqa), “a flowing robe that … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, femininity, feminism, gender balance, literature, philosophy, political, social conventions, the problematic of woman
Tagged abbayah, American woman, androgyny, Art, Art Student's League, burqa, Chinese art, Henry Adams, In the Land of Invisible Women, In the Land of Invisible Women: A Female Doctor's Journey in the Saudi Kingdom, invisibility, New York, New York City, orthodox, orthodox women, philosophy, Qanta Ahmed, Saudi Arabia, Toulouse-Lautrec, United States, Venus
Leave a comment
