Tag Archives: Socrates
The Ring of Gyges
There is a story that Plato tells in The Republic, his dialogue on political justice. Here’s how it goes. It starts with a man named Gyges. Everyone considered him to be a normal fellow. There was nothing odd about him. … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, agnosticism, alienation, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, Nihilism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, repairing the culture, roles, science, scientism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged ant colony behavior, ant nest assignments, ant social structures, changes in behavior when no one is watching, discharged from hospital, empathy, ethical choices under pressure, evolutionary ladder, fairness, fracture, functional obligations, good when someone is watching, goodness and observation, Gyges, healing and reflection, helpless patient, hospital experience, human nature, illness and insight, institutional indifference, Is the just man happier?, just vs unjust, philosopher of biology, philosophy from the bedside, physical rehab recovery, Plato, political justice, Sandra D. Mitchell's Biological Complexity and Integrative Pluralism, self-advocacy, selfish behavior, social advantages and disadvantages of acting right, social advantages of acting justly, social insects, Socrates, study of ant behavior, The Republic, The Ring of Gyges, the truth of human behavior, the view from the hospital bed, true self and social presence, unkind behavior, vulnerability and dignity, What are we?, when the cat is away the mice will play, witness to life, writing from recovery
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Philosophy on the Timeline
Philosophy on the Timeline The other day, I went to a new acupuncturist. We got to talking, I and the nice young man who’d been assigned to me for my initial session. From the forms I filled out as a … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, books, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, 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, 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, scientism, secular, self-deception, sex appeal, 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, victims, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged acupuncturist, analytic philosophers, Aristotle, boredom in culture, curing history, defining a culture, Descartes, dialectical method, dialectical progress, evil and freedom, evil and narrative, evil in history, George Lucas' The Ordering of Time: Meditations on the History of Philosophy, goal of history, graduate philosophy study, GWF Hegel, History of Philosophy, history's dialectic, history's future discoveries, Husserl, life's adventures, long philosophic conversation, love of wisdom, method of dialectic, moral threats, moral victories, Nietzsche, optimism about history, pessimism about history, philosophic mistakes, philosophical passion, philosophy and evil, philosophy professor, philosophy's history, philosophy's lineage, philosophy's questions, Plato, progress in history, rabbinic method, rabbis and philosophy, refutation in philosophy, Socrates, superseded philosophers, Talmudic method, the longest conversation, theories of history, views of truth, world views
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New Year Retrospective
New Year Retrospective I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. If they had any force for me, I might. First, you gotta believe in those things. But I do find living force in going back over the path recently trodden, to … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, novels, ontology, past and future, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, relationships, religion, roles, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, 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 2020, 2021, 5th Commandment, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Athenians and Socrates, audio book, Bernard Harrison’s Blaming the Jews: The Persistence of a Delusion, British philosopher, Clifton Fadiman, Columbia class of 1925, competition in suffering, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conscious truth, corrigible life project, course correction, dialectical tests, disloyalty to truth, Dr. Mark Bussell, elephant in the room, evil defined, failure as success, father-daughter relation, filial piety, genius, good clean fun, happiness, happiness in New York, Henry M. Rosenthal, higher code of feeling, history and the Jews, illustrated novels, intellectual memoir, Jewish intellectual, Jews on the Brain, keeping a journal, Life Force, Lionel Trilling, living dialectically, Loma Linda Neuropathic Therapy Center, materials for archiving, mental health in New York, Meyer Schapiro, narrative plotline, neuropathy treatments, New Year resolution, New York intellectuals, non-fiction narrative, novelty of narrative view, pandemic shutdown, personal growth, personal memoir, philosophic colleagues, philosophic narrative, philosophy dramatized, Platonic dialogues, satiric sense, Socrates, spoiling one’s story, talking about Jews, the drama of philosophy, theologians, Thomas Altizer, time for review, unconscious influence, unique talent, universalism in religion, world religions, yearly review, you gotta believe
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“Philosophy is Learning How to Die”
“Philosophy is Learning How to Die” Socrates said that about philosophy, in front of his grieving student/disciples, at the hour when he was to down the lethal hemlock served him by the jailer. Death was the sentence passed on him … Continue reading
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, books, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, martyrdom, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged anger, angst, anxiety, apprentices in philosophy, Athenian jury, beliefs falsified, cleaning closets, con man, consolations of philosophy, corruption, costly victory, deep calls to deep, dropping baggage, existentialist categories, frustration, gastrointestinal distress, healing wounds, hemlock, hurt, hydrotherapy, inherited baggage, Inner Spa, interiority and exteriority, internalizing insult, keeping what you need, learning how to die, letting go, life as adventure, love of truth, love of wisdom, minimalism, nobility, one-room apartment, outrage, philosopher, philosophy as a preparation for death, philosophy as academic discipline, philosophy as way of life, philosophy students, psyche and soma, righteous combat, risks of philosophy, self-renewal, sex harasser, sexual predator, simplify simplify, Socrates, somatization, thownness, traveling light, undiscovered countries, violation
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Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift
Christians, Jews, and The Great Rift I prefer to think of that world-historical-fault-line as a long, reparable misunderstanding. Whether or not that’s the right view, personally I want to patch it up. Yet I recall a Jewish scholar, speaking at … Continue reading →