Tag Archives: Simone de Beauvoir
Bad Faith at Sartre’s Cafe
Bad Faith at Sartre’s Café It may be of interest to note that post-World War II feminism (the “second wave”) was written-into-being by Simone de Beauvoir, a gifted French philosopher, in The Second Sex (1949). It was conscientiously researched and … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, bigotry, books, cities, class, conformism, contradictions, cool, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, 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, romance, romantic love, 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, 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 a woman’s honor, bad faith, boundless freedom, café intellectuals, café life, café seduction, courtship blunders, existentialism, fear of women, female helplessness, feminine vulnerability, femininity as a choice, forfeiting social approval, French lovers, French philosopher, Freudian seduction, identity as a choice, intellectual helplessness, intellectual power, intellectual seduction, Jean-Paul Sartre, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, Jean-Paul Sartre’s fundamental project, mauvaise foi, misogyny, non-monogamous, norms reversed, open relationships, parlor psychoanalysis, philosophic seduction, phoniness, post-World War II feminism, powerful men, resisting unwelcome advances, Sartrean existentialism, Sartrean freedom, Sartrean seduction, Sartrean self-invention, second wave feminism, self-invention, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, theories useful for predators, truthful life, unwelcome advances, using Freud for one's own agenda, weaponizing Freud, weaponizing the unconcious
2 Comments
The Personal Meets the Political
The Personal Meets the Political I’m still reading A Dangerous Liaison, the book by Carole Seymour-Jones, about the great twentieth-century power couple, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre. In my previous blog on them, I focused on the inconsistency between … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, books, cities, class, conformism, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, 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, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, 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, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged absolute certainty, absolute doubt, Albert Camus, Alfonse Dreyfus, anarchy and tyranny, Bianca Bienenfeld, bohemian freedom, Carole Seymour-Jones’ A Dangerous Liason, Claude Lanzmann’s The Patagonian Hare, communist party line, dazzling career, decadent Parisian intellectuals, defining the modern world, existentialist hero, existentialist morality, for-itself v in-itself, French intellectuals, French Resistance, Hegel’s phenomenology of spirit, Holocaust awareness, Holocaust survivors, intellectual careerism, intellectual power, intellectual PR, intellectual self-advertisement, Jean-Paul Sartre, Lanzmann’s Shoah, libertine Gnosticism, libertinism and despotism, living one’s philosophy, man/woman asymmetries, meaning of life, myths of French Resistance, Nazi genocide, occupied France, official story, opinion shaper, personal self-invention, philosophic inconsistency, philosophic life, post-modern skepticism, Power couple, private and public philosophy, rounding up Jews, seducing students, Simone de Beauvoir, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, the Dreyfus Case, the personal is the political, yellow star
1 Comment
A Good Look at Evil
A Good Look at Evil Last Friday the galley proofs arrived for the new edition of my book, A Good Look at Evil. When the first edition came out, decades back, Temple University Press nominated it for a Pulitzer prize. … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, art of living, autonomy, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, motherhood, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, relationships, roles, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, 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, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "the talent in the room", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", academe, academic eminence, academic research, Adolf Eichmann, ahead of its time, Betty Friedan, blurbs, book publishing, collegial relations, Eichmann's Argentine transcripts, endorsements, Eric Voegelin Society, Evil, Famous feminists, feminine self-erasure, first edition, flattery, founding mothers, galley proofs, genocide, Gloria Steinem, good and evil, good philosopher, Holocaust, Holocaust memories, keeping current, life story, Lionel Trilling, literary honors, living one’s story, mass murderer, Nazi thinking, non-fiction narrative, Norman Mailer, opinion shapers, philosophers, philosophic literacy, preface, professional recognition, professional renown, public intellectuals, Pulitzer Prize, reprint, second edition, Simone de Beauvoir, SS, Susan Sontag, Temple University Press, the Eichmann trial, the narrative view, Wipf and Stock
1 Comment
“Intellectual Women”
“Intellectual Women” Ugh. What a subject! I guess I’m one, but it doesn’t sound like a fun topic. In college, I had hesitated before deciding to major in philosophy. Would it look mannish? Would eligible bachelors be put off? When … Continue reading
Posted in academe, action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, Hegel, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged abrasive women, animal courtship, Being and Nothingness, books that change lives, Brooklyn College, co-education, coming out of the closet, discipline, dumbing down, eligible bachelors, equality of achievement, existentialism, female professor, Feminism, Flirting, freedom, gender performance, gender roles, gender-based laws, Hegel, ideology, intellectual power, Jean-Paul Sartre, male and female colleagues, male dominance, male rivalry, National Geographic, nineteenth-century philosophy, pecking order, revolutions in history, Simone de Beauvoir, sociobiology, the mating game, The Second Sex, women in philosophy
3 Comments