Tag Archives: William James
Thoughts About and Beyond Boundaries
I’ve just finished reading consecutively a book that previously, from time to time over the years, I’ve only browsed through. The very title, The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The Worldview of Williams James, might scare off any readers … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, 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, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, 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, journalism, Judaism, law, 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, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 19th-century philosophy, academic feminism, after death communications, alternate healers, alternative medicine, American philosopher, background assumptions in feminism, background assumptions in science, background assumptions in scientific investigation, beyond boundaries, beyond limits, competitve struggle as masculine, conventional cancer treatment, cooperation as feminine, cooperation in evolution, cooperation in population dynamics, creativity and self-doubt, creativity linked to neurosis, creativity vs reductionism, cultural and personal dichotomies, cultural boundaries of experience, cultural history and personal history, current philosophic fashions, Darwin and Freud in culture, Darwinian determinism, different life problematics, ecology, false gods, Freudian determinism, genetics, Henry James, life stories, limitations as opportunities, limits of alternative medicine, limits of modern psychology, Making Sense of My Life: A Memoir by Evelyn Fox Keller, medical humiliation Catholic Jewish and Protestant, merits of William James, metaphoric interpretations of evolution, neurotic affectations, novelistic characters, novelistic life stories, novelistic stories, open-mindedness, population dynamics, psychic communications, psychic healers, reductionism of Darwin, reductionism of Freud, reductionist psychologies, resource scarcity, science and epistemology, search and destroy cancer treatments, search for truth, self-determination undermined, self-trust, self-trust undermined, sociology of medicine, The Afterdeath Journal of An American Philosopher: The Worldview of Williams James by Jane Roberts, three sectarian branches of medical humiliation, William James, William James from the afterlife
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Interesting Times
There is a well-known curse, supposedly Chinese, that goes: May you live in interesting times! In my childhood I lived in a New York City that snowed in winter. We schoolkids built snowmen and went sledding in the park. Life … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, anti-semitism, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, 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, 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, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, racism, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, Renaissance, 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, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged academic bureaucracy, American philosopher, anti-semitism and loss of cultural self-respect, anti-semitism as replacement for personal defeat, anti-semitism in England, anti-semitism in higher education, anti-Zionism and Western cultural demoralization, anti-Zionism as loss of cultural self-defense, antigenocide turned on its head, Battle of Trafalgar, Bernard Harrison's Blaming the Jews, Big City childhood, British nineteenth-century cultural flourishing, building snowmen, Chautauqua movement, Chinese proverb, civilizational cycles, dark romanticism, demoralized generation, edifying educational retreat, English philosopher, going along to get along, Hebrew Bible as Jewish memory, Hitler’s anti-Judaism, Hitler’s genocide, Hitler’s racial classifications, ideal world vs real world, interesting times, Israel's 1948 Declaration of Independence, Israel’s will to survive, Jews as remembering their history, Jews not a race, Jews recording their history, Jews seen as a race, memory gap, moral balance, New York City childhood, overt vs implied anti-semitism, philosophic colleague, predictability of anti-semitism, safe and solid childhood, seeing what you expect, sledding in the park, suppressing chronological memory, the English defeat Napoleon, the makings of an anti-semite, too much of a good thing, transatlantic conversation, UN anti-zionism, uplifting vacation, wholesome group activities, wholesome uplift vs wicked world, William James, William James’ What Makes a Life Significant?, World War I demoralizes England, World War II and British cultural exhaustion
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Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist It’s a German word for the “spirit of the times.” The historian Norman Stone gives an example of a moment when the Zeitgeist changed: “Dangerfield had it right when he observed how, in the cartoons of Punch, there was … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, cities, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, 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, immorality, institutional power, journalism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, 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, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, TV, twentieth century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 1912, 1914, American philosopher, Anatomy as destiny, anthropologists, Art curators, Art forgery, Believing a lie, Cartoons in Punch, Children and truth, class warfare, contradictions, cultural relativism, Deceiving children, Detecting forged antiquities, Detecting lies, Detecting truth, determinism, dialectic, domination, Drunken father, Economic determinism, Epistemology, Etruscan Warrior, free will, Gender and choice, Hardwired traits, Having options, In step with the times, Inconsistencies, Institutional violence, Irrationalism, Jane Robert's The After Death Journal of an American Philosopher: the World View of William James, Living fashionably, Logic, Logos, Masks of power, Metropolitan Museum, Nietzsche, Norman Stone’s Europe Transformed: 1878-1919, Oppression, Oppressors and oppressed, Other-directed, Outliving one’s time, Posthumous recognition, Presentism, relativism, Righteous anger, search for truth, Signs of the times, social isolation, social retreat, Socratic method, Solitary mountain retreat, Spirit of the times, subjective relativism, the World, Truth and lies, Uninhabited island, universal truth, Victorian world, Well-meaning cops, William James, Zeitgeist
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Should the Dead Know Their Place?
Should the Dead Know Their Place? What are the dead up to? Are they just nonexistent? Many philosophers believe that and most would rather be annihilated than wrong. Are they sleeping? After the great bloodbath of the American Civil War, … Continue reading →
Posted in academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, nineteenth-century, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, scientism, seduction, self-deception, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "Hamilton" the musical, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "What Ayer Saw When He Was Dead", afterlife communication, American Civil War, Applied Ethics, Authenticity, Bertrand Russell, citing philosophers, college jocks, counterproductive therapy, death as sleep, defamation, duties to the dead, Existential Analysis, Founding Fathers, Francis Miles Finch's "The Blue and the Gray”, ghost stories, ghosts, good writing, gossip, Hamilton Awareness Society, Henry James, Jane Robert's The After Death Journal of an American Philosopher: the World View of William James, lean prose, Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton, Ludwig Binswanger, mediums, mediumship, naturalism, no way out, novelists, philosophical stylists, political rivals, posterity, power of rumor, pragmatism, psychologial conventions, purple prose, reductionist explanation, reputation, restoring reputation, ruined reputation, scholarly citation, scholarly protocol, silencing, skepticism, spiritual good manners, spiritualism, Stephen F. Knott's Alexander Hamilton and the Persistence of Myth, stereotyping, suicide, the afterlife, the dead, the last word, the paranormal, therapy, Thomas Jefferson, unacademic methods, William James
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Real Life and the Philosophic Life
Real Life and the Philosophic Life Is there any connection between the two? The book I recently fell in love with, John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story, was heartening to me on two fronts. First, the American philosophers, whose … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, faith, freedom, friendship, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, immortality, law, legal responsibility, literature, love, masculinity, memoir, memory, nineteenth-century, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political movements, politics of ideas, presence, promissory notes, psychology, public intellectual, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, scientism, social construction, social conventions, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, time, twenty-first century, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged "the divine Plato", 19th century, 19th century optimism, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", American optimism, American Philosophy, archives, Athenian street, Athens, Australian materialism, autobiography, Baruch Spinoza, business mentality, Cephalus, Charles Darwin, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conventionality, counter-culture, Darwin, Darwinian Laws of Nature, David Stove, David Stove's "Against the Idols of the Tribe", despair, determinism, dialogue, Divine intervention, Evolutionary theory, faith in progress, fate, fictional narrative, go along to get along, God as Witness, God's action, God's role, honesty, John Kaag, John Kaag's "American Philosophy: A Love Story", justice defined, limits of honesty, love life, luck, made up stories, memoir, native grain, New World, overcoming despair, personal pathway, philosophy's tools, Plato, political justice, Pragmatists, promise keeping, providence, pursuit of truth, road less traveled, role of chance, romantic risks, satire, Socrates, Socratic dialectic, Socratic method, Spinoza's Ethics, the God factor, The Name, Tom Wolfe, Tom Wolfe's "The Kingdom of Speech", true love, true stories, truth seeker, truth telling, unconventionality, what rings true, William James, William James' "The Will To Believe"
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“Hundreds of People”
“Hundreds of People” In A Tale of Two Cities, Dickens’ great novel of the French Revolution, there is a scene where the book’s heroine says: “I have sometimes sat alone here of an evening, listening, until I have made the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, mortality, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, 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, TV, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged AAR, AAR Conference 2016, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Confessions of a Young Philosopher", Amazon reviews, Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, American Academy of Religion, American Philosophy, archives, belief systems, Benghazi, Bernard Harrison, book exhibit, British philosopher, Charles Dickens’ Tale of Two Cities, Chris Stevens, climbing the barricades, colleagues, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, current physics, cynicism, Dostoevsky, echoes, elevator pitch, Emerson, footsteps, French Revolution, grandfather, guillotine, guilty, High Holidays, inner depths, inner life, innocent, Jewish historiography, Jewish history, Jewish spirit, John Kaag's "American Philosophy: A Love Story", literary agents, Lydie Denier, Lydie Denier’s A Voice for Ambassador J.Christopher Stevens, morphic fields, murdered diplomat, not in Kansas, philosophers, philosophic life, philosophical journey, premonition, private life, private life invaded, publishers, rabbis, Rav Tsair, Reign of Terror, romantic life, Rupert Sheldrake, Rupert Sheldrake's Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, San Antonio, spiritual journey, submission to publishers, Talmudics, Thoreau, training lab rats, transliterated prayers, truthful life, William James, world view
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