Tag Archives: Confessions of a Young Philosopher

Before Feminism – and After!

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Abigail

Before Feminism – and After! Lately, I’ve been reading When Men Were the Only Models We Had, by Carolyn Heilbrun. It’s a memoir on coming of age as an intellectual woman before feminism. As a graduate student in Columbia University’s … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, childhood, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, 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, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, motherhood, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", anti-women jokes, bloodless social revolution, brilliant women, careerist, Carolyn Heilbrun’s When Men were the Only Models We Had, castrating females, Clifton Fadiman, Columbia class of 1925, Columbia University, Columbia University English Department, coming of age memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, control of women, coquetry, delightful women, divorced women, doctoral candidacy, documentary histories of feminism, economic dependence on men, electro-shock therapy, end of communism, exclusivist maleness, father-daughter relation, feminism and women’s health, feminism as humanism, filial piety, flight into convent, flight into religiosity, Frenchwomen, friends and lovers, good writing, graduate student, hemophilia of the future Tsar, Henry and Rachelle Rosenthal, Henry M. Rosenthal, intellectual friendships, intellectual originality, intellectually alive, intelligence not enough, involuntary confinement, Jacques Barzun, jargon-free writing, killing motivation, Leo Bronstein, life of the mind, Lionel Trilling, Lionel Trilling correspondence, literary criticism, literary friendships, lobotomies, male academic dominance, male career models, male friendships, male intellectual models, male professional dominance, marital trouble, memoir, men in academe, mister right, negative vs. positive liberation, No Girls Allowed, over-sensitive, Phyllis Chesler’s The Politically Incorrect Feminist, pretentious writing, professional sovietologists, psychiatric abuse of dissenters, psychiatric abuse of women, punishment of dissenters, Reading Dostoevsky, reading Proust, reading Thomas Mann, Russian-accented English, sex discrimination, sexism, Sigmund Freud, the feminine mind, the feminist revolution, the masculine mind, the Pope in Warsaw, the Woman-principle, theoretical disparagement of women, understanding people, unpretentious writing, woman’s social power, womanly arts, womanly authority, womanly models, women as colleagues, women as friends, women graduate students, women’s dependence on men, women’s health, women’s need for men, women’s social dependence on men | Leave a comment

A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Abigail

A Good Look at Evil’s Second Edition The author’s advance copy of my expanded second edition of A Good Look at Evil, arrived Friday. The look of it is entirely gorgeous. To have such endorsements, from opinion-shapers of recognized importance … 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, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, secular, self-deception, 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 20th century culture, A. E. Housman's "To An Athlete Dying Young", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Adam Kirsch, advance copy, analytic philosophers, ancient Greeks, arête, Aristotle, at the mercy of appetite, attractive lies, author's aims, authority figures, be the best that you can be, Biblical narrative, blurbs, book cover, book publication, celebrity, champion athlete, climbing the mountain, Columbia class of 1925, common culture, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural ancestors, cultural forebearers, cunning of evil, dialogue, Edgar Allan Poe's "To Helen", elegiac poem, endorsements, evil's reality, excellence, facing facts, fame, father/daughter relationship, feminist activists, filial piety, flawless performance, force of circumstance, fundamentalism, fundamentalist, Gail Godwin, gifted novelist, glory, going wrong, hazards of life, Henry M. Rosenthal, ignorance, inflated egos, inter-ethnic conversation, interdenominational conversation, international conversation, jacket copy, life achievement, life aims, life goals, life of pleasure, literary critics, literary talent, manipulative purposes, missing your moment, misuse of words, moral vision, narrow minds, narrowness, noble aims, nonwestern cultures, Olympic athlete, opinion shapers, pagan culture, peak performance, Phyllis Chesler, pleasure, power of evil, public disfavor, public favor, public intellectuals, pursuit of pleasure, reality checks, revised edition, seizing your moment, snares of pleasure, The Bible, The class genius, the longest conversation, The Olympics, the struggle with evil, the vices, top of one's game, true lies, uncultivated mind, virtue, Western culture, William Lycan, winning the match, winning the race, wrong intentions, x-ray vision | Leave a comment

A Misremembered Woman

Posted on December 12, 2017 by Abigail

A Misremembered Woman I found a book to read for the flight from Philadelphia to Ontario, California, this past week. It was about a woman named Sabina Spielrein. I’d never heard of her, but she’s an important figure in the … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, romantic love, 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, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "The Love Cure", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", abuse of power, alpha males, biology and socialization, blotting a reputation, Carl Jung, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, creative empathy, creativity, culture heroes, death and rebirth, death instinct, desire stylized, doctor/patient relationship, driving women crazy, erasure of woman's intellectual legacy, erotic union, essentialism, female sexuality, feminine concepts, feminine ideals, Femininity, Feminism, feminist rehabilitations, Freud's Vienna Psychoanalytic Society, intellectual competitors, intellectual women, Jung's archetypes, male abuse, Male Power, male preserves, medical malpractice, mistress, mythic motifs, name calling as diagnosis, Nazi invasion of USSR, opinion shapers, perversion of influence, Phyllis Chesler, Phyllis Chesler's "Raped By Carl Jung Then Murdered By The Nazis" 11/6/17, Russia in the 1920s, Schizophrenia, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, social construction of gender, Soviet persecution, the Freud/Jung correspondence, The Freud/Jung Letters The Correspondence between Sigmund Freud and C. G. Jung ed.William McGuire, The Mothers, the psyche of a man, the soul of a woman, the unconscious, therapeutic malpractice, unwomanly women, What does woman want?, winners and losers, woman culture heroes, women novelists | Leave a comment

How Can I Tell If It’s God?

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Abigail

How Can I Tell If It’s God? I have Christian friends who tell me that a moment came in their experience when “everything changed.” They “met the living God.” Another friend, Jewish, who’s pretty well versed in Yoga, recently reported … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, Christianity, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, 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, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romantic love, scientism, secular, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Atheism, Authenticity, becoming oneself, Bible movies, burning bush, childhood religious training, Christians, coincidence, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, entering bliss, Epistemology, finding one's identity, founder of Modern Philosophy, Freudian view, gender of God, Hegelian view, Jesus in the movies, Jewish miracle, Jewish view, King James version, Kumbhaka, life saga, losing faith, making sense, meaning what you say, meeting God, Method of Doubt, miracle, miracle or coincidence, Moses in the movies, Patajali’s Yoga Sutras, providence, providential intervention, Real Voice, Rene Descartes, self-discovery, Spinozistic view, suspension of breath, theory of doubt, theory of knowledge, turning Godward, voice of God, weekly journals, yoga meditation | 2 Comments

Betrayal

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Abigail

Betrayal Jerry and I have been attending the American Academy of Religion (AAR) meetings in Boston this weekend. That’s the venue at which Jerry continues his guiding activities in the subfield of “Theology Without Walls,” which he introduced at the … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mysticism, non-violence, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged AAR, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic conferences, academic panels, American Academy of Religion, bad news, betrayal, betraying one's origins, Boston, Boston conventions, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural absolutes, cultural appropriation, cultural borrowing, culture as the matrix, discomforts of flying, epiphany, expanding boundaries, expanding identity, globalism, God's character, hotel inconveniences, human experience, hybrid cultures, infidelity, inspiration, judgment calls, lost suitcase, loyalty to origins, minor disasters, multi-culturalism, personal choice and culture, personal integrity, philosophers, philosophy, politics of ideas, politics of religion, power relations, religious identity, risks to identity, risky choices, selling out, spiritual experience, the Divine dimension, the language of power, theologians, theological remedies, theology, Theology Without Walls, tradition, trial and error, TWW, TWW project, war by other means, what's at stake, whoring after strange gods | 2 Comments

“Shabby”

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Abigail

“Shabby” Not so long ago, I reported here, in nearly ecstatic style, that a highly suitable publisher was expressing the kind of interest in my recently-completed book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, that was really promising. Then, instead of going … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, 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, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, roles, romance, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, 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 Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", acquisitions editors, anti-semitism, author's plight, authoritarians, authors, auto-theory, book editors, breaking the silence, c.v., changes in publishing, changing mores, children playing, climate of opinion, computer crash, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, confiding, consistent story, conversation topics, crazy-making lies, creative play, default state, editor's budget, editor's interest, editor's rejections, editor's words, fabled editors, fitting the publisher's list, girl talk, good reads, honest dealing, instant gratification, Jewish books, Jewish calendar, Jewish sages, Jewish themes, jilted at the altar, job security, losing the past, manuscript submissions, marketing books, marketing department, memoir, men in taverns, new media rythms, pitching your book, playing outside, pregnant silence, press guidelines, print communication, promising press, publisher's "Jewish list", publisher's budget, publishing guidelines, publishing industry, readers and silence, reading habits, reading public, smoking, state of publishing, suitable publisher, talking about books, teachers and silence, the human norm, the realm of values, timeline, truthfulness, unsupervised play, women friends, world of yesterday, writers and silence | 3 Comments

About Confessions of a Young Philosopher

Posted on June 27, 2017 by Abigail

About Confessions of a Young Philosopher A few months have gone by since I actually put the concluding punctuation marks on Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Since then, it has been making its way through the strange maelstrom of the publishing … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immorality, institutional power, Jews, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, radicalism, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, terror, the examined life, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a life problematic, a writer’s quest, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", biographies, book agents, book reviewers, books assigned in courses, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cultural breakthrough, Culture, exhibitionism, extra-sensitivity, fashionable taboos, good and evil, great editors, identity, invisibility, life secrets, literary quality, memoirs, Mind Control, moral rank-pulling, novels, Oppression, originality, paradigm shift, periodicals, philosophers, psychological rank-pulling, public jeering, public leering, publishing world, race, recognized niches, religion, search for identity, self-acceptance, self-definition, self-righteousness, self-understanding, sex, Socrates, spiritual seeker, spirituality, subjective amplifications, the book business, The Examined Life, the philosophic life, the reading public, trade presses, university presses, Zeitgeist | 2 Comments

Memoirs, True or False?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Abigail

Memoirs, True or False? Readers of this column are reminded from time to time that I recently finished a memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, and am looking round the publishing business to see if any editor/publisher will put up … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "a dog in that fight", 19th century Denmark, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal's Tales of Rav Tsair, academe, aetheists, akedah, autobiographical, being misinformed, believers, bequest, betrothal, biography, boat launch, broken engagement, Columbia class of 1925, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conflict of duties, Copenhagen, defamation, Diana Trililng's The Beginning of the Journey: The Marriage of Diana and Lionel Trilling, Diana Trilling, editor, ego-driven, formative experience, generous renunciation, Grandpa, hagiography, higher purpose, intellectual influence, intimacy, jilted girl, Joakim Garff's Kierkegaard’s Muse: The Mystery of Regine Olsen, Kierkegaard's Diary of a Seducer, Kierkegaardian influence, last will of Kierkegaard, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, magic mountain, male friendship, manipulation, married life, masks of ego, memoir, Mrs. Regine Schlegel, Natalie Robins' The Untold Journey: The Life of Diana Trilling, neurotic suspension of the ethical, New York intellectuals, obedience to divine commands, opinion shapers, philosophy, publisher, publishing business, realm of duty, Regine Olsen, self-will, shallow dogmatism, spiritual seduction, submission to the divine, Swiss sanitarium, Swiss TB treatment, TB treatment, teleological suspension of the ethical, The Binding of Isaac, the ethical level, the seducer, the spiritual level, theology, trust in God, University of Lausanne, woman as ideal | Leave a comment

Saints, Lovers and Writers

Posted on December 27, 2016 by Abigail

Saints, Lovers and Writers Girls and women tend to think that their work is an addendum, an add-on, to the main event: life. I have published books and articles, given papers internationally, fought for the right to teach philosophy without … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, action, afterlife, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, Christianity, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, motherhood, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, power, presence, promissory notes, psychology, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, twenty-first century, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic press, beautiful movie stars, biblical couples, biblical women, book contract, braving ridicule, canonization, Catholic saints, Catholicism, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterly's Lover", divine-human partnership, editors, Ernest Hemingway's "For Whom the Bell Tolls", eros, fight for truth, Gandhi, great lover, greatness in women, heroes of the spirit, heroic wives, Hindu, Hinduism, holiness, human and divine eros, inauthenticity, Ingrid Bergman's Joan of Arc, intellectual courage, intercession, intimacy, Jennifer Jones's Song of Bernadette, lapsed Catholics, Lord Byron's "Don Juan", man behind the curtain, marginalization, mental fight, miracle cure, miracles at Lourdes, peasant girls, phoniness, pilgrimage, pilgrims, prayer, purity, Rachel in Genesis, religion of Israel, reprinting, ridicule, Saint Bernadette Soubirous, sainthood, saints, Sarah in Genesis, seeing a vision, self-sacrifice, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, the lame the halt and the blind, The Wizard of Oz, truthfulness, young girls | Leave a comment

“Where’s the Self?”

Posted on December 20, 2016 by Abigail

“Where’s the Self?” The other night I had a dream in which I was driving east on Route 313 looking for a definition of the self. Continuing east, I had just passed the crossroad of Route 263 when I realized … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, Biblical God, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", autotheory, bad guys, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, defining evil, defining the good, delusions, delusions of selfhood, detecting evil, dream figures, Evil, God and the story, good and evil, good guys, good guys and bad guys, life story, living your story, memoir, personal narrative, personality, philosophical authorship, philosophical views of evil, philosophy and personal narrative, providence, providential intervention, publisher, reprints, spoiling the story, the good, the personal, updated reprint, vampires | Leave a comment

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