Tag Archives: women friends
A Quarrel That Mattered
It was Jean-Paul Sartre who wrote, “A quarrel does not matter.” He was writing about a friend with whom he had broken. I believe it was Maurice Merleau-Ponty of whose death he had just learned. And, in the same commemorative … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, Jesus, 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, 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
|
Tagged Abigail L Rosenthal’s A Good Look at Evil, Abigail L Rosenthal’s Spoiling One’s Story: The Case of Hannah Arendt, affective ties, avoiding hope to prevent disappointment, being above moral judgement, bracketing moral questions, broken friendship, combating malice, comfortable with solitude, consequential fork in the road, credible lies, death preventing reconciliation, deep quarrels, destructive lies, destructive lies that are believed, dodging disappointment, envy and defamation, envy and friendship, envy and social influence, existentialists, existentialists vs rationalists, exonerating nazis, feeling ties, finding meaning in history, finding meaning in real life, friends who quarrel, friends who share memories, friendship and disloyalty, friendship betrayed, friendship over professional ambition, friendships between philosophers, friendships with history, getting above bourgeois morality, getting above chronology, getting above history, getting above morality, Hannah Arendt, Hegelian view of history, Hegelians, Heideggerians, Jean-Paul Sartre, jumping the tenses, lifelong friends, loyalty and friendship, meeting in cafes, Merleau-Ponty, moral relativism vs wickedness, Nietzschians, Nihilists, non-conformism, nonjudgementalism vs conscious evil, not asking life to make sense, opposing evil, personal force, persuasive lies, philosopher friends, philosophers of history, philosophic differences, philosophic differences and real life consequences, philosophic differences that become consequential, philosophic irrationalism, philosophic rationale for personal betrayal, Plato is dear but truth is dearer, premature transcendence, pulling meaning out of real situations, quarrel between friends, quarrel unresolved, quarrels that don’t matter, quarrels that matter, refusal to judge, refusing to judge, rights and wrongs and friendship, seeking meaning in real situations, solitude on an arctic island, superficial quarrels, surviving alone in the arctic wilderness, the bad guys who seem to win, the real is not the rational, the real is the rational, the Viking model, transcendence as evasion, transcending moral norms, transcending right and wrong, truth and friendship, truth and philosophic friendship, twin opposites, Viking attitudes, women friends, women philosophers, women philosophers who are friends, women philosophers who were friends
|
2 Comments
Five Coins in the Fountain
Before feminism, girls in America were expected to be “popular.” But exceptionally, in my high school, I got an exemption. So, what high school did I go to? At that time, it was generally thought both democratic and fair to … 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 Archeology, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, Desire and Authenticity, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, 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, seventeenth century, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, Suicide, 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
|
Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal’s Confessions of a Young Philosopher, activities for college credit, anti-feminist bigotry, artistic vulnerability, brainwashing, breaking women’s silence, Bronx High School of Science, commodification of women, courtship and self-disguise, dreams of a wedding night, eligibility for gifted high schools, expected to be popular, extracurricular activities, fear of losing femininity, feminine vulnerability, femininity and innocence, femininity as a duty, femininity as a skill, femininity at risk, Feminism, feminist manifesto, gifted young painter, girls and good books, girls with good minds, girls you can’t fool, high school dreams, high school Literary Club, husbands controlling wives, imaginary fears, imaginary fears and real dangers, innocence lost, intellectual girls, intelligent unsentimental girls, intuitive sensitive women and vulnerability, intuitive young woman, losing innocence, marital brainwashing, marital domination and victimization, not forced to be popular, obligation to be feminine, old maid, originality vs femininity, path-breaking vs femininity, planning to be wonderful, poetic and romantic young woman, poetic young woman, popular girls, post-marital muddying of painter’s colors, prefeminist self-blame in women, public schools for the gifted, putting husband through grad school, reading good books, romance in Rome, romantic dreams, romantic hopes, Rome’s Fontana di Trevi, sexism, Simone de Beauvoir’s The Second Sex, Stepford wives, surviving feminism, surviving pre-feminism, teenage ambitions, the art of womanhood, the freedom of wives, The High School of Music and Art, the silence of women, the vulnerability of being feminine, three coins in the fountain, true love and the Fountain of Trevi, wedding night disappointment, wedding night hopes, wedding night reproaches, wedding night virginity, wife as patient, wife of a young doctor, wifehood and mental health, willed vulnerability, wives and women’s liberation, wives hiding their beliefs, women and self-condemnation, women friends, women not shocked by life, women who live up to their promise, women’s post-marital erasure, women’s stories
|
2 Comments
“My Inescapable Femininity”
Sylvia Plath 1932-1963 Sylvia Plath is one writer I never wanted to read – partly because she seemed to have a “cult” following. My reluctance had, however, another motive: I don’t like to visit the lives or the works of … 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, 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, Jesus, 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, 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, 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
|
Tagged academic mentor’s advice, academic mentor’s insensitivity, academic politics, Alice James, anti-fascism, anti-heroes, “My Inescapable Femininity”, Barnard College classmates, Bessel van der Kolk’s The Body Keeps the Score, biochemical psychology, brutal honesty, defining women, envying men’s freedom, Femininity, feminism’s over-simplifications, feminism’s personal cost, Freudian therapy, guilt by association, Henry James’ sister, living truthfully, love and suffering, male competition, personal honesty in culture, personal integrity in history, philosophy and femininity, philosophy as a masculine discipline, political extremism, prefeminist values, preventable suicide, preventable tragedies, psychic vulnerability, pulling moral rank, reductionism and femininity, rejecting cultural stereotypes, reversing trauma, Revolution and messianism, revolution and utopia, revolutionary competition, revolutionary purity, revolutionary sex appeal, self-masculinized academic women, Sigmund Freud, suicidal women, Sylvia Plath, the women’s movement, tightrope walking, trauma and the brain, Virginia Woolf, war of the sexes, William James’ sister, women and suicide, women defined as losers, women friends, women friends vs suicide, women in prefeminist culture, women supporting women, women writers, women’s failures
|
Leave a comment
Women Enemies and Women Friends
In Liaisons Dangereuses, the eighteenth-century epistolary novel of cynicism by Choderlos de Laclos, the plot turns around two aristocrats who co-conspire to seduce their unsuspecting victims. Their purpose is not so much to gratify sexual desire as to enjoy the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, Jesus, 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, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged 18th-century novel, academic gossip, academic politics, antisocial behavior, at home in the world, attacking a friendship, betraying trust, breaking faith, calumny and collegiality, calumny and lost friends, calumny and mutual trust, carcinogenic stress, Central Park Reservoir, chivalry between women, Choderlos de Laclos, co-conspirators, conspiracy to seduce, conspiring to victimize, culture-wide delusions, cynicism vs innocence, damaging fictions, damaging fictions believed, defamation and social envy, defaming gossip, defaming the innocent, dread medical verdict, effective defamations, epistolary novel, freemasonry of women, friendship betrayed, gallantry between women, gossip and social credit, harmful fictions, homeless in the world, Liaisons Dangereuses, Marquise de Merteuil, medical verdict, moral terror, moral victories, nature mirroring despair, nature reflecting moods, neighbors who are friends, New York neighbors, novel of cynicism, pathetic fallacy, psychogenic illness, psychological warfare, reductionism as cultural norm, reductionism as fashionable, reputation tarnishing, seduction, seduction for power, seductive lies, sisterhood of women, social damage, social danger, social death, social defeats, social envy, social power, social safety, social status, social terrorism, social violence, social war, social wound, surviving social warfare, symbolic murder, test of friendship, Vicomte de Valmont, vulnerability of women, when the bad guys win, woman as skillful enemy, woman colleague, women enemies, women friends, women giving a sense of home, women knowing where to strike, women supporting women, women undermining women, women victims, wounding socially
|
3 Comments
In Quest of Lost Friendship
The other night I had a dream in which I met a woman whom I used to regard as a friend. But she’d become an ex-friend – in the following fashion. An ill-wisher who’d known me from my earliest days … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, appreciation, art of living, authenticity, autonomy, bad faith, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, 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, institutional power, 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, mysticism, Nihilism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged academic friendships, academic politics, ad hominem attacks, afterlife reunion, afterlife visitation, ambiguity as disguise, believing a damaging lie, broken friendship repaired, candid truthfulness, collegial friends, collegial sense of trust, conversations with a deceased friend, correcting slander, credulous colleagues, credulous family friends, damaging accusations, damaging allegations, damaging gossip, damaging rumors, destroying a reputation, distinctiveness of philosophy, dream reunion, effective defamation, effective slander, evasion of truth, ex-friends, facing the big questions, false accusations, false and damaging accusations, former friends, friends and colleagues, ill-wisher, inauthenticity, intellectual trust, inversions of trust, inversions of truth, legal harm, life pretense vs undisguised afterlife, loss of trust, lost friendship, love of wisdom, meaningful dreams, naïveté as a disguise, narcissism, personal honor, personal honor misrepresented, personality disorders, philosophic friendship, philosophy profaned, politics of experience, pretended ambivalence, pretended appreciation, pretended childishness, pretended confusion, pretended harmlessness, pretended naïveté, pretended non-judgmentalism, professional damage, professional harm, professional patron, professional power, professional protégé, professional protection, protected intellectual space, protecting philosophy, protecting the search for wisdom, Rashomon, repaired friendship, repairing friendship, repentance and forgiveness, restored sincerity, romantic eligibility, search for wisdom, setting the record straight, significant dreams, social demotion, social down-ranking, social terrorism, sowing distrust, spiteful rumors, spoiling friendship, the philosophic life, the philosophic quest, the Rashomon alibi, trust in colleagues, trust in professional life, truth unrecognized, truthfulness vs defamatory lies, trying to undo slander, undermining friendship, undisguised in the afterlife, visitation from the afterlife, wasted words, why philosophy is special, women friends, work friends
|
Leave a comment
Feminism without Contradictions
In “Thought Faces the Future,” my column of October 1, only one short paragraph was devoted to philosophic feminism. All I said was that, by continuing to define womanhood as completely “socially constructed,” current feminist theory has left real-life women … 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, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, 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, 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
|
Tagged "Feminism Without Contradictions", "Philosophic Foundations of Feminism", 18th-century feminists, 19th-century feminists, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "Feminism Without Contradictions", adultery, Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique, contradiction- what?, contradictions of feminism, defending victimized women, defining contradiction, divorce for adultery, fellowship of the oppressed, Feminism, feminism and medical reforms, feminism and privacy, feminism and victimhood, feminism and women in prisons, feminism and women's sports, feminism’s contradictions, feminism’s future, feminist fashion statement, feminist Founding Mother, feminist husband, feminist ideology, feminist stories, feminist theory, feminists who insult women, gender identity, how to be a woman, husbands who betray, looking for Mr. Right, marriage and feminism, Mary Wollstonecraft, men as not the enemy, mother-daughter love, mother’s love, New York’s “Top of the Sixes”, oppressed as oppressor, overcoming bourgeois morality, perils of women, post-feminism, post-feminist stories, predicaments of women, private lives of feminists, professional betrayal, psychiatric malpractice, reassessing feminism, romantic poets and feminism, safety pin skirt, second wave feminists, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, sisterhood is powerful, supportive husband, The End of Woman by Carrie Gress, the problematic of woman, the situation of women, transitioning genders, womanhood as socially constructed, women controlling women, women friends, women in novels, women’s conversations, women’s faith, women’s faith in love, women’s fears, women’s hopes, women’s lives as a problematic, women’s memoirs, women’s private conversations, women’s social vulnerability
|
2 Comments
Micro-Metaphysics
Related Content: What Do Women Want? | My Journey Within | What a Woman Needs is Philosophy | Call No Woman Happy | The Other Culture War | As Philosophy Goes …
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, American politics, anthropology, 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, 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, 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, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, 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, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged Adam and Eve, Aristotle's Metaphysics, astrophysics, beyond physics, Big Answers, boundaries of ordinary life, boundaries of sensibility, cafe conversation, cause of causes, causes and freedom, conversational map, conversational tact, cosmogony, current feminist theories, deciphering women, decoding men, desire to know, desires forfeited, determinism and free will, ejsy ep, evil and women, facts and values, feminist abstractions, feminist politics, figuring out women and men, friends’ undiscussed topics, knowing what we need to know, life-terrain, logos of the cosmos, mapping the personal world, mapping women’s landscapes, men’s fears regrets hopes, meta ta physika, metaphysics of daily life, micro-metaphysics, mind and matter, new scientific frontier, personal landmarks, personal world, secret springs of action, secrets of daily life, sources of morality, tactful silence, The Big Bang, the big picture, the Little Picture, the real story, ultimate explanation, what women don't say, what women don’t disclose, women and men, women friends, women's conversational disclosures, women’s fears regrets hopes, women’s reunions, women’s undiscussed topics, World of Desire, zones of silence
|
Leave a comment
Overloaded
Within the past three days, here’s what’s been happening: I’ve ridden and absorbed advice from an insightful mare named Star, talked for a long-distance hour to an Israeli cousin in Vermont whose life has required her to make her … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, anti-semitism, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, 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, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged a surfeit of friends, acting on your principles, American women before feminism, being young in Paris, choosing life attitudes, collected tributes, combating anti-semitism, commemorating a lost companion, consequential encounters, consequential life choices, decisive characters, emotional overload, emotionally impactful encounters, enchantment and disenchantment, English philosopher, family fate, food-for-thought, from the horse's mouth, Fulbright friendships, group commemoration, group memories, group remembrance, grownup pathway, healing silence, horse sense, horse-whisperer, insightful horse, introvert and social exhaustion, introverts and social life, lead mare, lifelong friends, lifelong romantic attitude, living one’s story, living your philosophy, long-distance reunions, loss of innocence, meaning what you say, naive expectations vs real-life dangers, navigating life's storms, need for solitude, needing to be alone, novels as keys to real life, over-connectedness, overloaded, philosopher friend, political remedies for women's situation, pre-feminist American women, quiet time, realizing your ideals, recharging social batteries, recorded tributes, refusing cynism, remembering the departed, romantic hopes, significant reunions, Simone de Beauvoir’s Deuxieme Sexe, Simone de Beauvoir’s Second Sex, social exhaustion, socially overwhelmed, strong character, study companions, surviving tragic loses, taking charge of the herd, taking life seriously, tangled inheritance, the feminine situation, the horse knows, the need to stand down, The Woman Question, thought provoking encounters, too much of a good thing, Torah Study, transatlantic friendship, untangling family connections, Vikings, virtual reunions, women friends, women friends in Paris, women's predicaments, women's problems and political remedies, women's rights, youthful expectations and reality, youthful idealism, youthful innocence, youthful romantic hopes
|
Leave a comment
How to Live One’s Story
When I’ve talked about the need to defend one’s story, I’ve had in mind my experience that ill-wishers can show astonishing astuteness in picking out key elements of the life project or story they choose to attack, even before the … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, 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, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, 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, terrorism, 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, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged a story’s normative aspect, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", acting on principle, advice from women friends, Afghanistan, analyzing real life situations, attacking one’s story, Bible stories, childbirth out of wedlock, combat veteran, corporate life, corporate politics, defending one’s story, discerning one’s story, doing the right thing, driving with unchecked emotions, emotional tug of war, evil’s timetable, fictional dilemmas, fighting for one’s story, finding the normative element, gaining the world and losing your soul, God’s timetable, good and evil, heaven and hell, ideal solution, identifying with fictional characters, improving one’s story, Iraq, Israelites, Joseph and Potiphar’s wife, life's predicaments, living a story, losing one’s story, loss of a child, moral configurations, moral conflicts in fiction, Netflix’s The Virgin River, pregnancy of the other woman, real advice vs slogans, realistic idealism, reconciling realism and idealism, risking one’s job, romantic triangles, sharing grief, small town life, spiritual configurations, the achievable story, the cost of saving one’s story, the ideal as unreal, the ideal story, the lesser evil, the moral landscape, the spiritual landscape, transcendence vs reductionism, unreal solutions, virtue’s timetable, what’s the right thing?, women friends
|
2 Comments
Must Our Stories Come Out Right?
In my passage from childhood to young girlhood, there were two stories I relied on for clues about the life that lay ahead of me. The first was Homer’s Odyssey. The second was Joseph and His Brothers (from Genesis 37-50) … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, book reviews, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, 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, Idealism-, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memory, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, novels, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, 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, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
|
Tagged a daughter’s sorrows, a mother’s secret, a woman’s sorrows, Abigail L. Rosenthal's "A Good Look at Evil", Abigail L. Rosenthal's "God and the Care for One's Story", appeasement, Athena’s rejuvenating gift, Biblical high drama, bystanders’ denial of evil, Cain and Abel, calling evil by its name, Christianity’s doctrine of original sin, Christianity’s view of sin, clever enemies, clues for living, coat of many colors, divine help, divine intervention helping nature, effective enemies, encountering evil, enemies of the story, exile and homecoming, figuring out one’s parents, fratricide in history, Genesis 37-50, good stories, growing up, happy endings, Homer's Odyssey, how to deal with evil, human wickedness, ignorance and unintended evil, ignorance vs wickedness, Joseph and dreams, Joseph in Egypt, Joseph meets his brothers, Judaism’s doctrine of sin, Judaism’s view of sin, judgmentalism and moral judgment, living a good story, long voyage home, mapping one’s personal future, misunderstanding vs wickedness, moral philosophers and evil, moral relativism, mothers and daughters, Odysseus and Penelope, Odysseus's homecoming, placating evil, providence overriding nature, providential element in stories, public success private failure, quest for the grail, real life and mythology, recognition and reunion, recognizing evil, refusal to judge evil, romantic hopelessness, romantic hopes, saving the story, silver tongued enemies, sins of the mothers, stories in the Bible, suffering in nature, the Bible’s dramatic stories, the concealed truth in official stories, the hero’s journey, the invisible stories of women, the Joseph story, the owl of Athena, the problem of evil, the quest, the wise child knows her parents, theodicy, theology and the problem of evil, Thomas Mann's Joseph and His Brothers, unspoken disapproval, when evil looks good, women friends, women’s cover stories, women’s secrets, young girlhood
|
1 Comment
