Tag Archives: relativism
Secrets of the Kingdom
Years ago, I was in the audience to hear a lecture by Columbia Professor of Ancient History Morton A. Smith who was discussing a verse he claimed to have discovered, anciently deleted from the gospel of Mark. In this new-found verse, Jesus … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, Christianity, 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, 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, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, 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, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 613 Commandments, a life in balance, a personal God, academic gravitas, academic obscurity, aesthetic force, behind the curtain, Benedict de Spinoza, books on the Holocaust, chance or providence, Columbia University, defense of Jewish Orthodoxy, historical encounters with God, Holocaust and philosophy, Holocaust survivor, Holocaust testimony, ideal witness, intellectual dexterity, Jewish experience, Jewish historical continuity, Jewish Orthodox worldview, Jewish Orthodoxy and philosophy, Jewish Orthodoxy and physics, Jewish Orthodoxy debating skill, Leo Strauss, Leo Strauss and Benedict de Spinoza, life-scape, malicious actors, Modern Orthodoxy, moral intelligence, Morton A. Smith, Moshe Koppel, nazism and malice, normality, personal worship, racism, reasons to be a Jew, relativism, secret gospel, secrets of the kingdom, Shoah, Spinoza's Theological-Political Treatise, Strauss Spinoza and Sinai: Orthodox Judaism and Modern Questions of Faith ed. Jeffrey Bloom Alec Goldstein and Gil Student, stylish academics, subjective and objective, Talmudic conversation, Talmudic debate, The Risk of Sorrow: Conversations with Holocaust Survivor Helen Handler by Valerie Foster, the survival of Jewish culture, thought experiment, truth and psychological distortions, undistorted view
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Times Best and Worst
Times Best and Worst We’re living through what are — like all times — the best and worst of times. As our calendar wends its way toward the New Year, we can’t help asking ourselves how it is with us … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sexuality, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Analytic philosophy, Antonio Gramsci, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Australian philosophy, best of times, computational perceptional psychology, Continental philosophy, cultural relativism, culture and dialectic, culture and truth, David Stove, ecological psychology, epistemology of doubt, fashionable nihilism, Foucault's Birth of the Clinic, Foucault's Madness and Civilization, Freudian unconscious, human norms, insanity and social power, J.J. Gibson, life adventures, life review, masters of suspicion, Michel Foucault, moral reality, nature and convention, New Year, objective fact, objective guilt v intentions, ordinary language, perceiving reality, Phyllis Chesler's Women and Madness, prevailing opinions, purge trials, Reign of Terror, relativism, revolution and delusion, Sartre's critique of Freud, Sartre's for-itself, Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, science and experience, scientific objectivity, sense data, skepticism, skepticism as a fashion, the fact/value split, the hermeneutics of suspicion, The Vienna Circle, thought leaders, totalitarian tactics, true narrative, trusting experience, Tyler Burge's Four Inheritances from Classical Empiricism Re Perception, virtue epistemology, Woke bully, worst of times
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Are We Seeing a Culture Shift?
Are We Seeing a Culture Shift? Dates vary, when people try to characterize a phase of culture, but for (let us say) the past 50 years, opinion-shapers in our culture have functioned under the aegis of the following influences: post-structuralism, … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, book reviews, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, 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, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, theology, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Adam Kirsch, aesthetic intentions, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, anything goes, artist's intentions, blacklisting, Cathleen Schine, conscious intentions, contradictory doctrines, creative intention, cultural framework, culture shift, Cynthia Ozick's Antiquities, debate at Davos, deconstruction, denouncing the denouncers, dominant group, Ernst Cassirer’s The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms, falsifiable claims, group agendas, group domination, hegemony, idealist v materialist, impartial justice, intentions as irrelevant, intentions no excuse, Jean Baptiste Camille Corot, John Gray, Jonathan Rée's Witcraft: The Invention of Philosophy in English, Marxism, objective reality, objective truth, opinion shaper, paradigm shift, philosophy in culture, philosophy's impact, Plato v Epicurus, post-modernism, post-structuralism, reality check, recognition of truth, relativism, rules of the road, search for truth, self-understanding, Steve G. Lofts, taking life seriously, the beautiful people, The New York Review of Books, universal values, writer's aim
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The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott
The Coziness of Louisa May Alcott “Coziness” is not a word in the highest repute. In the 17th century, when the philosophers called “modern” were allowing the new physics to define reality, the features they deemed objectively-out-there were measurable: like … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, novels, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, 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, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 17th Century Philosophers, Alcott as nurse, becoming a writer, catering to fashion, coming-of-age novels, cultural ideals of womanhood, death of Beth, farther shore., father-daughter relation, fatherly love, fictional simplifications, filial piety, Frederick Douglas, Greta Gerwig, guardian angels, happy endings, hard-edged modern views, hearth and home, Henry David Thoreau, home life, homelikeness, hope and faith, ideals of girlhood, important thinkers, Julia Ward Howe, literary catering, living one’s talent, Louisa May Alcott, Louisa May Alcott’s death, Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, Margaret Fuller, Marmee, Materialism, maternal protection, measurable reality, modern feeling, motherly love, Nathaniel Hawthorne, objectivity, parental guidance, personal fulfillment, physical reality, plain living and high thinking, processing influences, Ralph Waldo Emerson, relativism, repressing anger, sentimentality, size, subjectivity, the primary qualities, the secondary qualities, Transcendentalism, Transcendentalist family, unsentimentality, velocity, weight
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The Horse Knows
The Horse Knows As a child, I regarded animals as people. Particularly large animals, like the big dog that followed me around when we were at Hilltop, the bungalow colony in New Jersey where my family spent summers. They looked … Continue reading
Posted in action, art of living, beauty, books, childhood, contemplation, cool, courage, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, femininity, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, literature, love, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, power, presence, psychology, public facade, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romanticism, self-deception, 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, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged adult insincerity, animal ethology, animal intelligence, animal/human relations, animals are people, canine affection, caregiver’s stress, caregiver’s symptoms, cat lovers, childhood, children’s books, coping strategies, cynicism, denial syndrome, dog lovers, Epistemology, Equine Gestalt Coaching Method, Gestalt Therapy, getting thrown, horse as friend, horse knowledge, horse perceptiveness, horse sense, horse therapy, human tears, illustrated books, integrity, intelligibility, Joan Summers, kid stuff, lead mare, Mowgli, Mowgli’s friends, pets are people, philosophy teacher, relativism, Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, self evidence, self-deception, self-discovery, skepticism, soul-deadening, Step Into Joy Healing Arts, super-educated
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Private Matters
Private Matters The man I love has gone through harrowing surgery this week. It was not one of the operations currently at the frontier of the surgical arts. Once, it was. Now it’s about at the middle. Surgeons do it … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, novels, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 'till death do us part, academe, acceptance, action fields, aloneness, beshert, broken history, bypass surgery, cutting-edge surgery, difficult recoveries, facing the abyss, falling in love, falsified life, friendship, Heart surgery, human entanglements, husband and wife, institutional supports, life renewal, life system, limit situations, living artificially, living naturally, long term storage, Manhattan parks and museums, marriage for modern women, marriage vows, meaningful work, mind/body relations, moral accounting, moral record, moral support, New York City life, ordeal, philosophic commitment, philosophical articles, philosophy professor, professor/student interaction, recovery process, relativism, search for truth, short term storage, single life, solitude., state-of-the-art medical care, survivor’s predicament, taking risks, the city one loves, the old neighborhood, true love, truthfulness, untangling life knots, Upper East Side, women’s identity
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“The Comparative Lightness of Being”
“The Comparative Lightness of Being” Except for the dentistry, this old world seems to be going from bad to worse. It’s been downhill for decades. Neighborhoods going to hell. Small businesses and specialty shops closing. Anti-Semitism at a toxic high. … Continue reading
Posted in culture, history of ideas, ideology, nineteenth-century, ontology, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions, spirituality, the examined life
Tagged "Candid Camera", "far away places with strange sounding names", "Punked", 1950's, anthropology, anti-semitism, community, cultural memory loss, culture critics, daguerreotypes, declinism, dentristy, enemies, extremism, fanatics, fast food joints, foreign, globalism, neighborhood blight, openness, over-development, post modernism, preservation, progress, relativism, showmanship, small businesses
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