Tag Archives: search for truth
Battle Wounds
The post-October 8th, 2023 outbreak of Jew-hatred in academe continues to open psychic wounds. As a battle-tested veteran of many combats (for example the one pictured above), this phenomenon of psychic wounds is itself startling to me. Let me give … 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, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, 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, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, academic antisemitism, academic combat veteran, academic expediency, academic honor, academic politics, academic power struggle, academic reprisal, academic resentment, academic survival, anti-Israel cartoon, anti-Israel vigil holders, anti-whistleblower reprisal, Athens and Israel, Athens vs Israel, emotional survival, exhibit with anti-Israel cartoon, fashionable antisemitism, God as Witness, God in history, God on the timeline, impartial truth in academe, it’s not personal, Jewish assignment in history, Jewish identity, Jewish identity battles, Jewish psychic wounds, Jewish role in history, new antisemitism, Oct 8 2023, ousting a predator, Phyllis Chesler, Plato’s academy, predator in a religion, predator in a safe space, predator in the temple, Presbyterians against Israel, Presbyterians and the rabbi, psychic wounds, psychological survival, Reform Judaism, Reform temple, restoring one’s honor, rolling with the punches, scaring Jewish shopkeepers, search for truth, survival with no hard feelings, truth in academe, union-backed grievance, universities and Oct 7, universities vs Jews, whistleblower
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Easter Sunday
For my Christian friends, today is the day Jesus rose from the dead. O the stone was rolled away he’s no longer where he lay. Or so goes the country hymn. Did Jesus rise from the dead? Even analytic philosophers … 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 God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, 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, 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 36 righteous ones, analytic philosophers and theological claims, Cain and Abel, Christian doctrine, Christian transcendence vs Jewish immanence, Christian verticality vs Jewish historicity, Christian/Jewish theological differences, Christianity, country hymns, cultural norms, Edith Wyschogrod, faith-systems mutually challenged, historicity of the resurrection, inherited bigotry, inherited prejudice, intellectual risk, interfaith discussion, interfaith faux benevolence, Irving Greenberg, Irving Greenberg and the Resurrection, Jewish Presbyterian negotiations, Jewish Vatican negotiations, lamed vovnik, Michael Wyschogrod, people live and die by ideas, philosopher/theologian, phony mutual respect, platitudinous goodwill, questioning one’s assumptions, resurrection, risen Christ, rivalry for God’s love, search for truth, self-congratulatory goodwill, sibling rivalry and God, spiritual risk, theological negotiations, theological politics, theological rainbow group, theological rivalry, theology and sex appeal, unreal city in the future, Wyschogrod’s Rainbow Group
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Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions: Preface, Part 4
Today Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) complete their discussion of the Preface to her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let’s see how their discussion winds up. *** *** Jerry: In … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, 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, 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 "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", 20th-century philosophy, Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic philosophy, authenticity and truth, authenticity in love, Confession as a genre, Divine witness, ethics and integrity, ethics of love, examined life, existential reflection, faith and reason, feminist philosophy, Fulbright scholarship, God as backup for truthfulness, God as Witness, God's bias for truthfulness, God's Witness and truthfulness, grin and bear it, happy ending, honest motivation, human experience, idealism vs reality, inauthentic religion, insuperable obstacles, intellectual honesty, intellectual independence, Jewish philosophy, leaving home, liberty of mind, life as experiment, life as experiment with truth, life's ideal dimension, life's verticle dimension, live your philosophy, living authentically, living sincerely, living without pretense, living your ideas, love of wisdom, married philosophers, moral courage, moral philosophy, mystical experience, Paris, Paris in the 20th century, Paris memoirs, personal philosophy, philosophical autobiography, philosophical journey, philosophical memoir, philosophical storytelling, philosophy and love, philosophy and spirituality, philosophy of love, putting ideas to the test, real life as a test of ideas, romantic marriages, search for truth, seeking truth, seeking wisdom, self-deception, self-discovery, self-trust, sincerity in philosophy, smile!, Spinoza, stoicism, testing one's ideals, true aim of marriage, true love, truth in marriage, unforeseen pitfalls, wisdom traditions, witness to truth, women authors, women philosophers, worldly warnings, you can't fool God
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Confessions
Confessions Last night I was trying to cope with a digestive disaster and wondering what on earth could have caused it, since it didn’t seem to have the usual obvious connection with food. Two explanations presented themselves. First, a possible … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, ancient gnosticism, Australian Materialist, changing paradigms, closing off life's promise, complications of race, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, contending worldviews, disrupting cultural norms, double plotlines, empirical and conceptual plotlines, Eric Voegelin. philosophy of history, escapism, escapism in real history, fashionable attitudes, finding one’s footing, flawless world, gnostic belief systems, gnostic calamities, gnostic cults, gnostic hidden world, gnostic mass movements, Hans Jonas’s The Gnostic Religion, intellectual resources, Jean-Jacques Rousseau's Confessions, Jews’ precarious position, libertine Gnosticism, life lessons, life paradigm, life problems without remedy, literary talent, living one's promise, man/woman seduction, masculine precincts, personal search for truth, philosophic motivations, philosophy as masculine, portrait of a culture, portrait of one’s era, psycho-somatic illness, quick fixes, Richard Landes’s Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience, search for truth, secret knowledge, self-portrait, situations without exit, St Augustine’s Confessions, the philosophic life, the promise of a life, the truth of one’s time, thought-worlds, utopian political views, when God doesn’t answer, women philosophers, women pioneers, world of ideas, worldviews
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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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Proceedings and Addresses
Proceedings and Addresses Proceedings is the shared forum, like the Athenian agora, where American philosophers who have managed to command the attention of their colleagues publish their invited addresses. Since 2000, I’ve stepped down from active faculty status (though not … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, 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, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history of ideas, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, science, scientism, seduction, self-deception, seventeenth century, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 17th century thought, Abigail's Adages, academic gossip, academic infighting, academic papers, academic politics, academic wives, agora, American philosophers, American Philosophy, APA, APA’s Memorial Minutes, APA’s Presidential Address, Athenian agora, Authenticity, Brooklyn College, Brooklyn College Philosophy Department, confirmation bias, Contemporary philosophy, cut throat business, discrediting reason, dog eat dog, epistemolgy, faculty status, finding oneself, giving a paper, good advice, high-power husband, human trustworthiness, impartial criteria, intellectual competition, intimate ties, invited addresses, Julia Driver, mathematical physics, misology, modern philosophy, moral criteria, moral prioritization, New York diner, one thought too many, pecking order, Penelope Maddy, personal v universal, philosophic argument, physicalism, primary and secondary qualities, Proceedings and Addresses, science and human values, search for truth, self-realization, sense of belonging, sense of decency, shared reasoning, snubbing, social forces, social prudence, The American Philosophical Association, The Enlightenment, the football field, the human zoo, the latest stuff, the longest conversation, the measurement of nature, theory of knowledge, universal criteria, universal ties, wives and widows, women philosophers
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Eminence?
Eminence? Nowadays I have been listening to the audio version of A Good Look at Evil (forthcoming on Amazon, early 2021). Jane Cullen, who was my editor at Temple University Press when this book first came out, has a young … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, abstract claims, acquiring a life story, audio version, audiobook, audiobook listeners, audiobook narrator, Augustine’s Confessions, book editor, career moves, changing one’s paradigm, chess game of life, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural identity, defending turf, drama, Eminence, empathy, enacting a book, enacting philosophy, fame and fortune, fame as career, Guggenheim Museum, hyper-feminine, Jane Cullen, life of ideas, life-shaping beliefs, life-shaping ideas, lived dramas, Matthew Cohn, meeting objections, Metropolitan Museum, personal brand, personal identity, philosophic argument, philosophic career, philosophic claims, philosophic critic, plotline, professional commendation, reading aloud, search for truth, self-correction, self-criticism, speaking for effect, speaking sincerely, St. Augustine, Stockholm syndrome, Success, suspenseful plot, Temple University Press, thinking time, time for thought, world of ideas
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