Tag Archives: Plato’s Republic
Situated in History
Situated in History This might be an unusual trait, but I am someone who has trouble knowing who she is, and what life asks of her, until she gets some clarity about her place in history. By “place in history” … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, race, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, Utopia, victimhood, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged alternate timeline, biblical archetype, Cain and Abel, cheap grace, Chilul HaShem, Christian forgiveness, curing racism, desecration of the name, ecological solutions, feminine dignity, forgetting wrongs, forgiveness as therapy, forgiving wrongs, global competition, God as Witness, God in history, God's feminine image, history and Jews, history as illusion, Isaiah's vision, Jewish forgiveness, Jewish identity, linear time and narrative, linear time and religion, messianic expectations, original sin, personal transformation, place in history, Plato's Republic, redemption, satyagraha, saving the planet, sibling rivalry, spiritually incurable, stains on conscience, the course of human events, the historical condition, time and Jews, wrestling with the angel
Leave a comment
Who or What Were Adam and Eve?
Who or What Were Adam and Eve? Unless you believe that the entire universe actually came into being at the divine summons 5,781 years previous to the New Year of September, 2020, with the two parents of the human race … 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, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "David and Bathsheba", 17th-century philosopher, Achilles, Adam and Eve, Antonio Gramsci, Bereshit, Bible as fiction, Bible as myth, Biblical characters, brute power, bully’s rationale, Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre", cover story, creation ex nihilo, David and Jonathan, David and Saul, David the adulterer, David the warrior, David’s repentance, dialectic defined, dialectical personifications, embodied ideas, embodied spiritual stages, Erich Auerback’s Mimesis : The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, false consciousness, functional power, Garden of Eden, Gramscian view, hegemonic euphemisms, Hobbes’ Leviathan, Homer's Odyssey, Homer’s Illiad, human choices, in the beginning, King David, King Saul, literary characters, New Year 2020, Nietzsche, novelistic creation, Odysseus, original sin, Plato's Republic, Plato’s genius, political philosophy, power relations, Psalms of David, Rosh Hashana, social contract, Socratic dialectic, spiritual drama, spiritual moments, spiritual reality, spiritual space, spiritual temptation, study of myth, the human race, the state of nature, theoretical construct, Thomas Hobbes, Thrasymachus
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
What’s With the Nothing?
What’s With the Nothing? In the mornings, when I sit for meditation, I ask for input from On High and generally aspire to learn what the day should hold for me if I orient rightly. Normally, the answers I get … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, beauty, Biblical God, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, faith, femininity, freedom, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, masculinity, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, morality, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, race, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, secular, seduction, self-deception, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", absurdity, bigotry, blaming Israel, class hatred, conflict resolution, Continental philosophy, deep thinking, divine guidance, emptiness, evil doers, existentialists, global consensus, God in the world, happy every after, ideological conflict, intuitive insight, Israel, Jews, Martin Heidegger, meditation, nihilism, philosophers in cafes, Plato's Republic, pointlessness, political differences, Poussin’s Et in Arcadia ego, prayer input, psychical differences, purpose of life, race prejudice, received opinion, receptivity, root canal surgery, saving the planet, self-assurance, self-discovery, self-knowledge, self-realization, self-trust, skepticism, stereotyping, the big picture, The Nothing, trusting intuition, unforced agreement, who am I?
Leave a comment
Coping With Men
Coping With Men Last night, Jerry and I were watching a netflick about Lillie Langtry, the celebrated Edwardian beauty. We are at the point in the story where she is beginning to be noticed by fashionable painters of the day … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, class, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memory, mind control, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, power, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged American flourishing, arête, Aristotle's Politics, bad husbands, being in touch with feelings, body as bearer of meanings, body as gender neutral, Christopher Hitchens, classical philosophers, Clinton Impeachment, coarsened national mood, cosmetic vulnerability, credible testimony, criminal assault, eminent domain, emotional narrowness, emotional range, fashionable painters, female vulnerability, feminists, fighting dirty, future president, gender asymmetry, hormonal vulnerability, human excellence, Journalism, Juanita Broaddrick, Lillie Langtry, male protectiveness, male/female interdependence, National virtue, NBC interview, Netflix, normal men, official history, patriotism, Plato's Republic, political candidates, politics as courtship, power asymmetry, Preamble of The United States Constitution, Presidential campaign 2016, Presidential Candidates 2016, public business, purpose of politics, rape, refrigeration, respectable women, sexual assault, sins of The President, special prosecutor, suborning perjury, suppressing testimony, The United States of America, unofficial history, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal story, Whistler, womanizer, women voters, women's flourishing
2 Comments