Tag Archives: romantic risks

The Stroke of Lightning

Posted on December 30, 2025 by Abigail

Tonight I want to revisit an experience whose status in modern culture is typically regarded with skepticism. The French call it the stroke of lightning (le coup de foudre). It’s the sudden descent/visitation of romantic love. It’s not the same … 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, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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, 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, 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 | Tagged absolute risk, antiromantic skepticism, Brooklyn Connections vs Core Curriculum, choice at the crossroads, Coup de foudre, Dante and Beatrice, Dante’s Divine Comedy, detachment of the observer, Edmund Husserl, failing to rise above it, failing to stay detached, first kiss, Jerry Martin and Abigail Rosenthal, knowing you are in love, life choice, maintaining detachment, meaningful kiss, meaningful relationship, Medieval romance and gnosticism, Medieval romance and otherworldly, Medieval romance as model, medieval romance as subversive, mistaking infatuation with love, mutual attraction, no guarantees in love, obeying the summons of love, observer and observed, peak experience, phenomenological bracketing, phenomenological reduction, resisting the summons of love, rising above it, Romance, romance in fiction, romance in psychology, romance novels, Romantic Love, romantic risks, saving Brooklyn College, Saving the Brooklyn College Core in The New York Post, Saving the Brooklyn Core in The Jewish Daily Forward, saving the core curriculum, Saving the Core in The Chronicle of Higher Education, self awareness, self deception, skeptical of romance, the meaning of a first kiss, the stroke of lightning, The Stroke of Lightning vs societal norms, the summons of love, Tristan and Iseult, two paths in the wood | 1 Comment

Paying Nostalgia Forward

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Abigail

Paying Nostalgia Forward Jerry and I celebrated our eighteenth wedding anniversary last Friday. We watched the inauguration (moving right along here), and then drove through the rain to a Hindu temple in New Jersey that the wonderful lady who runs … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, faith, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, health, heroes, hidden God, history, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, ontology, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, politics, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a good marriage, being a good couple, being understood, childhood, courage, courtship, cutting the umbilical cord, cyclical time, defining desires, desire, Eastern art, emotional health, falling in love, filial piety, first love, French restaurant, growing up, Hindu temple, homesickness, Indian aesthetic, integrality, lasting desires, life frontiers, life story, linear time, longing, Madison Avenue, Manhattan apartment, marble sculpture, Marriage, maturity, new projects, New York City, New Yorkers, non-historical v historical, nostalgia, opposites attract, overcoming tyrannies, parents, Paris, partnership, personal identity, private space, professional identity, publishing articles, recovery, refusing to grow up, renewal, repairing wounds, repression, Romantic Love, romantic risks, sculpture in high relief, secrets of the future, secrets of the past, seeing significance, self-recovery, self-renewal, self-repair, shared space, suitable life partner, Texans, Texas panhandle, the big picture, the future, the large scheme, the past, the present, true love, uncured wounds, unworthy suitors, Washington DC, wedding anniversary, Western art, wholeness | 2 Comments

Real Life and the Philosophic Life

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Abigail

Real Life and the Philosophic Life Is there any connection between the two? The book I recently fell in love with, John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story, was heartening to me on two fronts. First, the American philosophers, whose … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, freedom, friendship, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immortality, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, nineteenth-century, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, social construction, social conventions, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, time, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the divine Plato", 19th century, 19th century optimism, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American optimism, American Philosophy, archives, Athenian street, Athens, Australian materialism, autobiography, Baruch Spinoza, business mentality, Cephalus, Charles Darwin, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conventionality, counter-culture, Darwin, Darwinian Laws of Nature, David Stove, David Stove's "Against the Idols of the Tribe", despair, determinism, dialogue, Divine intervention, Evolutionary theory, faith in progress, fate, fictional narrative, go along to get along, God as Witness, God's action, God's role, honesty, John Kaag, John Kaag's "American Philosophy: A Love Story", justice defined, limits of honesty, love life, luck, made up stories, memoir, native grain, New World, overcoming despair, personal pathway, philosophy's tools, Plato, political justice, Pragmatists, promise keeping, providence, pursuit of truth, road less traveled, role of chance, romantic risks, satire, Socrates, Socratic dialectic, Socratic method, Spinoza's Ethics, the God factor, The Name, Tom Wolfe, Tom Wolfe's "The Kingdom of Speech", true love, true stories, truth seeker, truth telling, unconventionality, what rings true, William James, William James' "The Will To Believe" | 2 Comments

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