Tag Archives: social construct

Femininity – A Social Construct?

Posted on February 6, 2024 by Abigail

A professor in one of my graduate departments of philosophy warned me that, if I wanted “to become a philosopher, [I’d] have to destroy [my] femininity!” On the other hand, Simone de Beauvoir opened her path-breaking, paradigm-shaking book, The … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, 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, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged college towns, convent life as a woman's solution, de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, destroying femininity, femininity and cultural paradigms, femininity and culture, femininity as innate, femininity as social construct, femininity at risk, feminism and cultural paradigms, feminism and culture, inconveniences of womanhood, intellectual fashions, male professors, male/female differences, men and women as different, moral fashions, motherhood and women's ambitions, philosophy and femininity, safety and women undergraduates, sex differences natural or conventional, Simone de Beauvoir, situation of women, social construct, unisex-beings-with-inconveniences, what do women know?, what do women want?, what my grandmother knew, what my mother knew, what women know, whistleblower, woman in a male profession, womanly authority, womanly realism, women erasing themselves, women who take the veil, women's wisdom as cross-cultural | 2 Comments

What Would Hegel Do?

Posted on April 4, 2023 by Abigail

I called myself a Hegelian for much of my academic career. Though that field is usually assigned to Continental Philosophy, the chair of one highly-regarded – and predominantly Analytic – philosophy department to which I’d applied told me that my … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, 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, institutional power, Jews, journalism, 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, mortality, nineteenth-century, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, 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, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L Rosenthal's Feminism Without Contradictions, academic career, addressing cultural assumptions, analysts vs continentals, Analytic philosophy, answers to prayer, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, appeals to unconscious instinct, Brooklyn College students, collective conclusions, contemporary cultural skepticism, Continental philosophy, cultural conformism, culture and history, decoding unspoken assumptions, democracy highest form of government, dialectic and history, dialectic and world views, dialectic vs prayer, dialectical method, diverse student body, Divine intervention, doing philosophy, dominant cultural opinion, elite opinion, fashionable opinion, Frances Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man, Gates of Vienna 1683, God helps those who help themselves, Hegel vs theism, Hegelian analysis, Hegelian teaching method, Hegelian thought, history of ideas, images lifted out of context, jihad and the West, Lepanto 1571, manipulative speech, mass communication and demagogues, mass communication and mob action, mass opinion, mob action and demagogues, Nietzsche and Marx, objective truth, Parisian postmodernism, petitionary prayer, philosophic questions, philosophy and inspiration, Poitiers 732 A.D., prayer and healing, prayer is not enough, prayer vs magic, prayer won't mail a letter, reign of soft terror, rights dignity and representation, skepticism and social privilege, skepticism within the educated, skeptics nihilists and revolutionaries, social construct, stages of consciousness, story of human history, teacher-student dialogue, technology and deception, the battle for Ukraine, the long march through institutions, the reasonable life, the victory of representative democracy, the way of the lemming, the West and the other, the West and Ukraine, unconscious power dynamic, underlying power relations, using Western achievements against the West, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Western hegemony, Western intellectuals, what would Hegel do, WWHD | 2 Comments

If Our Time Could Speak

Posted on May 19, 2020 by Abigail

If Our Time Could Speak In recent columns, I’ve mentioned that for me The Plague has opened the time to read through the journals, correspondence and manuscripts, published and unpublished, of my late father, Henry M. Rosenthal, who was considered, … Continue reading →

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“The Politics of Ideas”

Posted on January 12, 2016 by Abigail

“The Politics of Ideas” They say you are what you eat, but it’s been my experience that you are what you believe. People live and die for the ideas they believe to be true. What is more, people dress, work … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, Christianity, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged 586 B.C., ancient history, anger, anomaly, anti-semitism, aporia, apostles, Apostles Peter and James, archaeology, arguing to find the truth, arguing to win, argument, belief systems, beliefs, Brooklyn College, Christendom, Christian Fathers, Christian Jewish rapportchement, Christians, circumcision, competition for converts, counter-example, country gospel, damnation, destruction of The Temple, dialectic, diversity, Early Christianity, elites, Ethics, evangelical Christians, evil inclination, Feminism, feminist politics, feminist slogans, First Temple, freedom, Gentiles, good inclination, History, ideas, ideology, Institutional Power, institutional practice, integrity, inter-religious dialogue, Jesus, Jewish antiquity, Jewish authorities, Jews, John G. Gager's "Who Made Early Christianity: The Jewish Lives of the Apostle Paul", Judaica, Judaism, liberation, life of ideas, Mind Control, missionary, models, morals, mores, multi-culturalism, New Yorkers, opinion shapers, original sin, paradigms, personal conduct, philosophy professor, Plato, Political Movements, politics, politics of ideas, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton University, principles, refutation, religious politics, resentment, salvation, search for truth, shared assumptions, sinners, social boundries, social conduct, social construct, social control, social penalties, social practice, Socrates, Socratic dialogues, sophisticates, steles, supersessionism, synagogue donors, synagogue membership, synagogues in the ancient world, The Book of Acts, The Covenant, The Crucifixion, the Law, The Passion of Christ, the rift between Christians and Jews, the Righteous Gentile, theology, thought police, thought world, tragic history, truth, world views, wrongheadedness, You are what you believe, You are what you eat | 5 Comments

Spiritual Warfare

Posted on August 13, 2015 by Abigail

Spiritual Warfare I have been reading a book called The Art of Spiritual Warfare by Grant Schnarr. It’s a pretty good book. For one thing, it tells us that evil has objective reality. Evil is not a social construct. For … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, non-violence, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "The Art of Spiritual Warfare", "The Art of Spiritual Warfare: A Guide to Lasting Inner Peace Based on Sun Tzu's The Art of War", "The Art of War", argument, Biblical encounters, Biblical God, censorship, Christian Zionists, combat, communication, confession, conscience, dialogue, dilemma, divine encounter, encounter with God, epiphany, Evil, facts and values, fight, God of Israel, good neighbors, Grant Schnarr, incommunicative, inspiration, Israel, judgementalism, loving Israel, loving Jews, martial arts, mission, paradigm shift, placards, political demonstrations, propaganda, protest, right to exist, self-righteousness, silencing, social construct, social construction of reality, spiritual homeland, strategy, Sun Tzu, un-neighborly acts, war game, war propaganda, warfare, writing topics | 4 Comments