Tag Archives: Confessions of a Young Philosopher

“The Gang’s All Here”

Posted on April 19, 2016 by Abigail

“The Gang’s All Here” I’ve always liked to be in situations where the whole gang was here. In Hilltop, the summer place of my childhood (memories revived in “Kid Stuff”) we had a small but true-hearted band of playmates to … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, mortality, nineteenth-century, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, seduction, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "the gang's all here", academe, academic firing, academic non-reappointment, academic politics, academic standing, Alfred Dreyfus, allies in combat, American students, analytic clarity, analytic philosophers, anonymity, assistant professor, blogs, book review, calls to arms, change of habitat, chiropractic, City of Lights, classy books, closeness, colleagues, collegial relations, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, controversy, cyberspace, dishonorable discharge, dismissals, distant drums, drawing appreciation, drawing fire, drumming out, editing, editorial changes, emotional nearness, expatriots, fighting the good fight, first rate philosophers, friendship's end, Fulbright scholars, fun, group defeat, group victory, Hemingway, Henry M. Rosenthal, hierarchy, intellectual friendships, intimacy, irreverent youth, Jerry L. Martin's "God: an Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher", job fight, Journalism, journalistic training, Jungle Book, junior colleagues, Kipling, lament for friendship, Lionel Trilling, literary friendships, moral sympathy, moving home, Mowgli Stories, nearness, neutral space, outranking, Paris, pecking order, plain style, polarized departments, professional assassination, Public Intellectual, romantic drama, safe distances, say it like it is, social survival, sporting chance, Sturm und Drang, the drumming out of Dreyfus, the God story, time travel, unfrocking of priests, unsettling events, writing, writing process, youth and innocence | Leave a comment

“Birthday!”

Posted on March 8, 2016 by Abigail

“Birthday!” The way you can tell that “I” don’t choose these topics (but respond – as if to an inner prompt) is instanced here: why would anyone (over twenty one) choose that one? My acupuncturist tells me that I’m 29 … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, childhood, chivalry, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, memoir, mind control, modernism, mortality, motherhood, nineteenth-century, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged a life of one's own, acupuncture, Aging, Authenticity, bad checks, battening the hatches, being duped, being misinformed, biography, birthday, bitterness, blunders, celebration, chi, children blaming parents, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cosmic perspective, countering depression, cultural mistakes, cutting losses, delusions of love, depression, disappointment, dramatic people, extraordinary people, facing facts, fascinating people, fear of aging, filial piety, global perspective, global suffering, God's eye view, going strong, heartbreak, honoring father and mother, human history, Leo Bronstein, life foundation, life missteps, life mistakes, life path, life's unfairness, looking younger than your age, mentor, misplaced hopes, mistaken beliefs, mistakes of the culture, mistakes of youth, native ground, native track, necessary mistakes, negative acts, old souls, original life, originality, overprotection, parent-child relationships, parenting, Parenting 101, personal pathway, personal presence, Plan A, Plan D, problem of evil, problem of pain, public intellectuals, rebellion, recovery, recuperation, refusal, romantic delusions, spectator, strong personality, tapering off, unfairness, victory, Walking Wounded, war wounds, winding down | Leave a comment

“A Philosopher’s and a Woman’s Place”

Posted on February 2, 2016 by Abigail

“A Philosopher’s and a Woman’s Place” I’ve mentioned that a former colleague — alongside whom many a good fight was fought — has decided (to my great surprise) to nominate me to give one of the American Philosophical Association’s John … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art of living, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, Christianity, cities, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, motherhood, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, 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 "nice girls", "pretty girls", "thinking like a man", "thinking like a woman", "ugly girls", 20th century ideologies, 3:00 o'clock in the morning, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Getting Past Marx and Freud" Clio Vol. 15 Number 1, academic journals, academic philosophy, acceptance letter, activism, Ambiguity, ambition, anal sex, anomalies, anti-colonial activism, Arab culture, Authenticity, beauty and fashion, body armor, career women, careers, classical virtues, colleagues, collegiality, communism, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cosmopolitan night life, counter-examples, dark night of the soul, Department of General Philosophy, Department of Traditional and Modern Philosophy, doctoral dissertation, embarrasment, encoded lives, eternal truths, ex-husbands, fallacy of equivocation, family honor, feminine ego, Freudianism, G.W.F. Hegel, historicism, historiography, history and eternal truth, honor killing, hymenoplasty, hypotheses, immodest dress, immolation of women, intellectual freedom, Jehovah's Witnesses, job struggle, John Dewey Lectures, Katherine Zoepf's "Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World", Lebanese women, male ego, masculine thinking, Master's thesis, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, murder, Muslim women, oral sex, originality, partriarchy, peer reviewed journals, philosophy, philosophy journals, piety, primordial fear, problem-solving, professional life, put downs, rape, refereed journals, rejection letter, research, sexual availability, sincerity, surface freedom, Sydney University, Syrian women, talent, The Examined Life, the Other, the philosophic life, the Qur'an, The Woman Question, unauthorized marriage, underground, virginity, Western dress, Western feminists, womanhood, womanliness, women in universities, women's freedom, writer's craft | 2 Comments

“What the Fortune Cookie Said”

Posted on January 19, 2016 by Abigail

“What the Fortune Cookie Said” In the last few weeks, whenever we’ve brought home supper from the Chinese take-out place, and opened the fortune cookie, mine has been deplorable. Things like, “When climbing the hill of difficulty, don’t slip and … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, 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, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged A.P.A., Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", academic audience, academic journals, academic publication, achievement, aftermath, American Philosophical Association, Amy Reuther PT, anonymity, Ariadne's Thread, blog, blogging, broken bones, burka, c.v., celebrity, China, Chinese take-out, classified information, colleagues, collegiality, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, destiny, Dewey Lecture, dream warnings, Eastern and Western medicine, elusiveness, Epilogue, fame, fashion, fate, felicity, final chapter, fortune, fortune cookie, fulfillment, government secrets, Greek mythology, healing, hero, heroine, hiding, ill-fortune, ill-luck, injury, introverts, invisibility, invited lecture, labryrinth, life goal, life quest, luck, mending, Minotaur, modesty, New York City, night life, obscurity, peer-reviewed, performance, philosophical journals, preface, primary care doctor, privacy, Prologue, public figures, public intellectuals, public persona, publicity, readership, recovery, recuperation, rehabilitation, revealing clothes, Richard J. Firnhaber acupuncturist, self-concealment, short skirts, significant coincidences, social media, social networks, Success, synchronicities, Theseus, university press, writers, writing | 2 Comments

“Getting Thrown”

Posted on December 22, 2015 by Abigail

“Getting Thrown” One time, in my riding days in Downeast Maine, I went trotting up and down the neighborhood of Back Bay Road in search of the people who owned our right-of-way and shore strip. I needed to find them … Continue reading →

Posted in action, childhood, chivalry, cool, courage, desire, erotic life, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, health, heroes, identity, love, memoir, mortality, past and future, peace, philosophy, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sex appeal, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, time, work, writing | Tagged "punchin' cows", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", authors, blue ribbons, books, canter, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cover design, cowboys, Downeast Maine, editing, ending, gallop, getting thrown, God, half acre, horseback, horses, horses and humans, inheritance, injury, Jerry L. Martin's "God: an Autobiography as Told to a Philosopher", last chapter, last ride, launching moment, life of the mind, Montana, Montana skies, neighbors and strangers, other lives, parental bequests, people from "away", proofreading, publishing, riding, right-of-way, rodeo, shore strip, taking a fall, therapeutic riding, title to land, Western horse, writing | Leave a comment

“Home Away from Home”

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Abigail

“Home Away from Home” “Abigail has always felt abandoned,” Léo Bronstein, my father’s best friend, once said. Léo was a sort of godfather to me and said this after he read the earlier version of my Confessions of a Young … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, action, alienation, childhood, cities, contradictions, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, medieval, memoir, mind control, motherhood, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, violence, war, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", 1930's, abandonment, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", accuracy, afterlife rewards, age-mates, aggresion, attachment, Auschwitz, building superintendant, café atmosphere, café habituées, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, danger, defense, Divine permission, dysfunctional family, earthly Jerusalem, enemy agent, FBI, German spies, godfathers, hatred, heavenly Jerusalem, Hitler, Holocaust, home, homelessness, homelike, identity, international media, Jerusalem, Jihad, journalists, knife attacks, Leo Bronstein, Madison Avenue, medieval cartography, navel of the world, New York, nonsurvivors, offense, Park Avenue, provocation, security, sense of safety, short wave radio, sincerity, SS guard, survival, the objective case, The Wizard of Oz, troop ships, trust, truthfulness, U boats, Upper East Side, violence, World War II, Yorkville, Zyklon B | 4 Comments

“Unhappiness”

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Abigail

“Unhappiness” Now there’s a rich topic! It seems easier to do (achieve) than happiness, or at least easier to write about. The New York Times Book Review — where you have a weekly roundup of what the people who read, … Continue reading →

Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, autonomy, chivalry, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, heroes, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, mind control, modernism, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, power, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", alienation, angst, anomie, anxiety, Australia, Australian unhappiness, bad guys, Brené Brown's "The Power of Vulnerability", choice of evils, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, despair, doom, enabling, failed romance, falling in love, false love, first love, frustration, generosity, good guys, happy endings, heartbreak, hidden facts, hidden life, Homer's Odyssey, lies and identity, literate readers, looking to score, lying, Mr. Right, New York Times Book Review, Odysseus, predators, psychic stability, rescuing others, Romance, saving others, seducers, self-sacrifice, Siren's Song, social defenses, staying in love, stolen identity, the fadeout, The Right Guy, the shootout, true love, unavoidable losses, unhappiness, unhappy loves, unhappy women Down Under, unsuitable loves, vulnerability, Westerns, writers | Leave a comment

“Hanging Fire”

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Abigail

“Hanging Fire” I seem to be at a rather gratifying plateau. “Confessions of a Young Philosopher” is now edited almost to completion. It may take another few weeks but the major hurdles have been cleared. It is, if I may … Continue reading →

Posted in academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, cities, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, Jews, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, memoir, modernism, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, reductionism, relationships, roles, seduction, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, theism, time, twentieth century, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", "Conversations with My Father", "The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way" by Henry M. Rosenthal; ed. Abigail L. Rosenthal, 9/11, American culture, archives, biography, blessings, book projects, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, cracking the code, editing, enigma, experience of God, fathers and daughters, genius, Henry M. Rosenthal, High School of Music and Art, historical memoir, Hobbes, Holocaust rescue, intellectual friendships, Islamism, Jews, journals, letters, liberal intellectuals, Lionel Trilling, literary critic, male friendship, New York, New York intellectuals, Partisan Review, personal correspondence, personal God, philosophy, posthumous conversations, posthumous publication, public intellectuals, rationalism, seventeenth century rationalists, Spinoza, Terror, terrorism, theism, theistic experience, victims, Wars of Religion, writing | 3 Comments

“Confessions of a Young Philosopher”

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Abigail

“Confessions of a Young Philosopher” These days I am bringing to final form a new book titled, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. So what’s the “confession” part? And what’s the “philosopher” part? Why do I give the book that name? … Continue reading →

Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, autonomy, chivalry, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, Hegel, history, history of ideas, identity, ideology, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, power, psychology, relationships, roles, seduction, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, time, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged accusers, apology, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Ayaan Hirsi Ali "Nomad", Azar Nafisi, Azar Nafisi "Reading Lolita in Tehran", biblical persons, biblical time, change agents, Christian Europe, classical era, concubines, confession, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, counter-examples, crimes, defense, dissent, embodied ideas, evidence, Feminism, Greco-Roman antiquity, Hegel "Reason in History", identity, Latin civilization, living dialectically, living your truth, Manicheanism, menacing, misdeeds, missteps, Mona Eltahawy, Mona Eltahawy "Headscarves and Hymens", Muslim women, Neo-Platonism, Noni Darwish, Noni Darwish "Now They Call Me Infidel", paradigm, persona, Plato, Plato "The Apology", Qanta Ahmed, Qanta Ahmed "In The Land of Invisible Women", Rafia Zakaria, Rafia Zakaria "The Upstairs Wife", repression, Roman circuses, secrets, self-transformation, social mask, social risk, spiritual autobiography, St. Augustine, St. Augustine "Confessions", truth and falsity, truth seeker, woman philosopher, women heroes, women's aculturation, world-historical figures | 2 Comments

“It’s Not Enough to be Intelligent”

Posted on May 5, 2015 by Abigail

“It’s Not Enough to be Intelligent” Today Fran, my therapeutic riding teacher, told me I have “a beautiful physique” on a horse and could qualify for the International competitions in “para-dressage” (dressage for the handicapped). People compete in those events … Continue reading →

Posted in action, alienation, autonomy, chivalry, contradictions, cool, desire, dialectic, erotic life, faith, femininity, freedom, friendship, health, Hegel, history of ideas, identity, institutional power, love, male power, master, memoir, motherhood, peace, power, psychology, relationships, roles, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time, Zeitgeist | Tagged "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Abigail L. Rosenthal, absurdity, blood work, checkmate, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, contradictions, depression, disappoinment, failure, Faith, God, handicap, Health, hippotherapy, Hitchcock film, holistic healing, hope, hoplessness, intelligence, Janus-faced, Mother, neuropathy, Olympic competition, para-dressage, physiatrist, physical therapy, Portugese, prayer, providence, self-help, suffering, therapeutic riding, Western medicine | 1 Comment

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“Getting Thrown”

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