Tag Archives: the Other
Levinas, the Other, and Me
Levinas, the Other, and Me Some years ago, I went to a conference on Emmanuel Levinas at the University of Chicago. I had just discovered Levinas, found him a dramatically original and appealing philosopher, and went out there with no … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, books, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, memory, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, 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, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Catherine Chalier, curing hatred, dialogue v monologue, Emmanuel Levinas, erasing the face, French-Jewish philosopher, hatred, human reciprocity, human recognition, human relationship, ideal of universality, ideas popularized, incurable situations, Levinas conference, man/woman reciprocities, Parisian philosophy, philosophic disciple, philosophy misunderstood, politics of religion, The Face of the Other, the fate of ideas, the Other, the universal as the dominant, tragedy of the philosophic commons, University of Chicago
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Delusions of Intellection
Delusions of Intellection “People live and die by ideas!” “You are what you think – much more than what you eat!” With encouraging words like these, I would try to persuade students in an intro course to see the study … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, law, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, Renaissance, roles, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, 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 Albanian student, Alexander Bloom’s Prodigal Sons: The New York Intellectuals and Their World, American assimilation, Antonio Gramsci’s Prison Notebooks, Arabian student, bad ideas, bad karma, Brooklyn College of CUNY, careerism, children of immigrants, class inequality, class war, communism, cultural assimilation, delusions, delusive thoughts, dialecticians, division of labor, educated delusions, fall of Soviet Union, first generation Americans, flawed ideas, Great Soviet Experiment, hope of the future, immigrants, Indian student, intellection, intellectual delusions, intellectual diversity, intellectuals, Jewish intellectuals, Jewish quotas, Karl Marx, Karl Marx’s The German Ideology, left wing writers, Marxism, Moscow demonstration, multiculturalism, New Masses magazine, opportunism, parental dreams, Partisan Review, peer approval, philosophy, philosophy professor, philosophy students, pied piper, risk of belief, Russian student, self-deception, Somalian student, specialization, teaching philosophy, Texan student, the 1930’s, The Black Book of Communism: Crimes Terror Repression, the Great Depression, the Other, The Soviet Union, thought world
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The Gift of the Jews
Unwrapping the Gift of the Jews What’s the gift of the Jews? It’s to live with God chronologically. Is that all? Is that anything? Well, I don’t know if it’s anything, but it’s the reasoning behind the Bible. Keep track … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, nineteenth-century, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "God is my witness", 19th century thought, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, appeasement, atrocities, Australian Outback, bad people, beheadings, Bible, biblical studies, Charles Dickens, Christians, crucifixions, defamation, Emmanuel Lévinas' "A Religion for Adults" in Difficult Freedom, Emmanuel Lévinas' Difficile Liberté, genocide, good people, good people and bad people, grace, gratitude, Hans Castorp, ISIS, Israel, Joseph Puder, literary criticism, living historically, malice, Malmo, Middle East, Modernity, narrative criticism, non-fiction lives, normality, novelistic lives, novels of ideas, Oliver Twist, pacificism, Peace, Philosophical fiction, Quakers, Roger Sandall's documentary films, salt of the earth, sanatoriums, sanity, sentimentality, StandWithUs, Sweden, Swedish Anti-Semitism, thankfulness, The Covenant, the face of The Covenant, The Face of the Other, the gift, the Other, Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, World War I, Yazidis, Zionism
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“Living in History”
“Living in History” That’s a theme of mine, though it’s easier to give the theme a name than to say exactly what it means. I can hone in on it by at least by saying what it’s not. If you … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, chivalry, Christianity, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immortality, institutional power, Jews, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged absurdism, accidents, action, Advaita Vedanta, against the odds, agnosticism, agnostics, anomalies, anti-religious, anxiety, apostasy, argument, atheists, being fired, being human, belief system, Brooklyn Bridge, censorship, certainty, Christianity, clarity, close-mindedness, closure, cognitive virtues, communism, conceptual defeater, corrigibility, corrigible hypotheses, cosmetic concerns, counter-example, cultural relativism, data, deconstructionism, despair, dialectic, disappointment, disillusionment, dissenters, Divine Presence, doubt, doubters, dread, empowerment, epistemological doubt, Eric Voegelin's "Autobiographical Reflections", evidence, evidence for God, facism, Faith, false consciousness, false gods, fears, fixed idea, Freudianism, genius, getting pregnant, getting sick, Gnosis, God, guidance, Hinduism, historicizing, historiography, History, honesty, hope, hopeless situations, hopelessness, humility, hypotheses, Idealistic Monism, Ideologues, inconstant faith, inner certainty, Intellectual fashion, intellectual reversal, intellectual rigidity, Islam, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judaism, knowledge, lifelines, misanthropy, misology, moral realism, Party Line, philosophy, Plato's Phaedo, police state, problem of history, Procrustean bed, reality, refuting instance, religionists, religious people, repression, Right and Wrong, rigidity, Sartre's "Hope Now", serene faith, shattered nerves, Shekinah, skepticism, Socrates, subjective relativism, sure-footedness, talent, the half-dark, the Other, the true God, theists, uncertainty, unconscious doubt, unpredictability, writer
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“Losers”
“Losers” The Loser is the epitome, the spittin’ image, of what we don’t want to be. One time I shared, with a fireman friend, how it feels when you walk down the street feeling like one. “And everybody knows,” my … Continue reading
Posted in culture, life and death struggle, philosophy, psychology, relationships, social conventions, the examined life
Tagged abuses, aggression, birthright, blessing, crime, desolation, despair, economics, Edward Said, Emanuel Levinas, empathy, envy, fathers, firemen, French philosophers, hatred, Jacob and Esau, losers, manipulation, motivation, one-upmanship, philanthropy, psychology, rejection, self-destructiveness, sibling rivalry, sociobiology, solitude., street smarts, the Other, theories, violence, web of belief
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