Tag Archives: World War I
How Hegel Helps
How Hegel Helps A British analytic philosopher friend read my “Obit” column of last week and noticed that I’d spent some of my professional time with G. W. F. Hegel, the nineteenth-century German philosopher. He emailed to ask what on … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, bad faith, books, bureaucracy, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, female power, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, male power, masculinity, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, modernism, moral evaluation, moral psychology, nineteenth-century, novels, oppression, past and future, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged 19th-century German philosophy, a man’s world, advice for women, American universities, Ariadne’s thread, before and after WWI, boundaries on desire, British Analytic Philosophy, cultural era, cultural fad, cultural platforms, cultural studies, culturally relative truth, culture as way of thinking, defining an era, defining culture, empathy, fashionable feminism, female passivity, flappers, girls in the 1920s, Henry James, ideology v experience, intellectual fashions, intellectual groupie, key motivation, life as evidence, literary studies, lived experience, men and feminism, opinion-shapers, Parisian deconstructionist, Parisian intellectuals, Parisian post-moderns, philosophy in the Anglosphere, philosophy of history, Presentism, professional philosophy, queer studies, search for truth, the Absolute in culture, the downfall of a culture, the end of an era, the humanities, The Jazz Age, the right questions, thought-forms, WB Yeats’ The Second Coming, why cultures fall, women’s liberation, women’s studies, World War I
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Love Stories
Love Stories Just now I am reading a book Jerry got me, titled, Love in the Western World. Translated from the French, it’s by a guy named Denis de Rougement. With a name like that, and a title like that, … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, books, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, eternity, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, hidden God, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, immorality, immortality, institutional power, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, medieval, memory, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, 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, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged Anti-social behavior, Arthur Schopenhauer, Bad lovers, Betrayals, Between the world wars, chemical imbalance, childhood reading, chivalry, Coup de foudre, death wish, Deprivation experiments, Eros in the Bible, Erotic force, ethology, Fatal passion, Fealty, Feudal obligations, Film-making genius, France and Germany, Francois Orzon’s Franz, French soldiers, Freudian theory, Friedrich Nietzsche, German soldiers, Hard-wired behavior, Hidden love, Innate behavior, Jean-Paul Sartre, King Mark of Cornwall, la carte de tendre, map of love, Marie-Henri Beyle, Medieval knights, Medieval legends, Modern attitudes, Natural instincts, Nazi era, Nietzsche’s influence, Personal advice, Personal loyalty, personal relations, Post-modern attitudes, Primal urges, psychoanalysis, Romantic Love, romantic yearning, Sigmund Freud, Social obligations, Song of Songs, Stendahl, Sublimation, Tragic love, Tristan and Iseult, Troubadors, Unconscious desires, Unspoken romance, Vanished worlds, Western romantic tradition, world history, World War I, Year 1919
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A Funny Thing Happened to Philosophy (on its way to the deepest depths)
A Funny Thing Happened to Philosophy (on its way to the deepest depths) Recent projects of work have put me back in contact with a strange business in which philosophy had a strange part to play. In the 1920’s, as … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, art of living, atheism, autonomy, chivalry, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jews, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, love, male power, masculinity, master, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, mortality, mysticism, ontology, oppression, past and future, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, race, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romance, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, status, suffering, terror, terrorism, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged argument chains, Authenticity, average man, average opinions, Beethoven, being-there, being-toward-death, bloodbath, careerism, classroom philosophizing, collapse of trust, country music, currency and trust, currency and value, Dasein, deep thought, dishonor, Edmund Husserl, Emmanuel Levinas's Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence, Emmanuel Levinas's Totality and Infinity, expulsion of Jews, fall of German mark, generations of thinkers, genius, German defeat, German professoriate, Hank Williams's Your Cheatin' Heart, Hannah Arendt, History of Philosophy, human decency, inflation crisis, Jewish mentor, Jewish students, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Martin Heidegger, Martin Heidegger's Being and Time, Nazi party, new foundation, opinion shapers, outmoded worldview, personal destiny, philosophic betrayal, philosophic competition, philosophic depth, philosophic genius, philosophic influence, philosophic legacy, philosophic loyalty, philosophic rivalry, philosophic Romanticism, philosophic stardom, primeval, public intellectuals, Rector at Freiburg, spellbinding lectures, strange business, the best and the brightest, the human face, ultimacy, University of Freiburg, University of Marburg, Ur source, victors and losers, World War I, World War II, worldview, young windbag
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Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman One of our back-to-back appointments here in California was cancelled, freeing the Saturday afternoon hours, so we decided to go see “Wonder Woman,” a great hero of my childhood now back in living cinematic color. The Israeli girl … Continue reading
Posted in action, beauty, Biblical God, childhood, contradictions, cool, courage, cultural politics, culture, desire, erotic life, evil, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, gender balance, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, identity, Jews, Judaism, life and death struggle, love, masculinity, memory, moral action, moral evaluation, past and future, peace, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, power, presence, relationships, roles, romance, sex appeal, sexuality, social construction, social conventions, status of women, suffering, terror, terrorism, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged appeasement, caliphate, comic books, DC comics, DC Extended Universe, film star, Gal Gadot, genocide, good and evil, Holocaust, IDF, Israeli athletes, Jewish experience, Jewish theology, jihadis, Linda Carter, martial arts, Nazi murders, Ottoman Empire, overtraining, Patty Jenkins, post-appocalyptic innocence, prelapsarian innocence, self-acceptance, super heroes, theological escapism, utopia, Wonder Woman, World War I, yetzer hara, yetzer hatov, Zyklon B
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“Personality”
“Personality” More than once in these columns, I’ve mentioned my long-standing view that people live and die by ideas. Still, as I’ve come to recognize, that’s not entirely true. It has to be qualified. For example, it’s very hard to … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, class, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, 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, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, Jews, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, mysticism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, ontology, oppression, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, political movements, politics, power, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, 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 1907-1914, abdication, adultery, authoritarians, Aztecs, belief system, bluff, Carnival, Catholic authoritarians, Catholic mystics, childish taunting, Classical culture, conquest, conquest of Mexico, conquest of the Western hemisphere, consorts of powerful men, corrigibility, cultural conquest, cultural consensus, death wish, debates, descent, Donald Trump, European conquest of New World, female vulnerability, Feminism, Freud, gamesmanship, God-to-people partnership, Greco-Roman civilization, group consensus, Hebrew Scripture, ID, imprinting, infidelity, inherited belief, intellectual rivalry, intellectual self-correction, Jesuits, let-downs, libido, Life Force, male force, malice, man to man, marital cheating, morbid imprint, natural force, Nietzsche, night of passion, nineteenth century Europe, nineteenth century European women, one wild night, paganism, passion, personal imprint, personal magnetism, personal weak spots, personality, Political Campaign 2016, political debates, political games, political malice, power games, power of argument, power of ideas, power politics, powerful men, powerlessness of argument, pre-Columbian Mexico, Presidential Candidates 2016, Presidential debates, Presidential politics, primal force, primitive force, primitivity, refutation, rivals, Schopenhauer, secular humanism, seduction, social acceptance, suicide, TB, TB sanatorium, teasing, Terror, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, trophy wives, truth-seeking, United States of America, universal rights, untamed paganism, untamed personality, Walpurgis-Night, widowhood, winning debates, woman's autonomy, woman's freedom, womanhood, world progress, World War I
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The Gift of the Jews
Unwrapping the Gift of the Jews What’s the gift of the Jews? It’s to live with God chronologically. Is that all? Is that anything? Well, I don’t know if it’s anything, but it’s the reasoning behind the Bible. Keep track … Continue reading
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, alienation, anthropology, art, art of living, atheism, autonomy, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, Christianity, class, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, eternity, ethics, evil, existentialism, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, heroes, hidden God, history, history of ideas, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, institutional power, Jews, journalism, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modernism, mortality, nineteenth-century, non-violence, oppression, past and future, peace, philosophy, political, political movements, power, propaganda, psychology, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, roles, romanticism, seduction, sex appeal, social conventions, sociobiology, spirituality, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, violence, war, work, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "God is my witness", 19th century thought, anti-semitism, anti-Zionism, appeasement, atrocities, Australian Outback, bad people, beheadings, Bible, biblical studies, Charles Dickens, Christians, crucifixions, defamation, Emmanuel Lévinas' "A Religion for Adults" in Difficult Freedom, Emmanuel Lévinas' Difficile Liberté, genocide, good people, good people and bad people, grace, gratitude, Hans Castorp, ISIS, Israel, Joseph Puder, literary criticism, living historically, malice, Malmo, Middle East, Modernity, narrative criticism, non-fiction lives, normality, novelistic lives, novels of ideas, Oliver Twist, pacificism, Peace, Philosophical fiction, Quakers, Roger Sandall's documentary films, salt of the earth, sanatoriums, sanity, sentimentality, StandWithUs, Sweden, Swedish Anti-Semitism, thankfulness, The Covenant, the face of The Covenant, The Face of the Other, the gift, the Other, Thomas Cahill's The Gifts of the Jews, Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, World War I, Yazidis, Zionism
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“Places”
“Places” “There are no places anymore.” This was the complaint we two hitchhikers, Anna and me, heard from an American traveler at a roadside stop. Our informant — who was saying this to his two compatriots many decades back — … Continue reading
Posted in action, alienation, art, cities, class, cool, culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, fashion, freedom, history, history of ideas, identity, institutional power, literature, love, memoir, nineteenth-century, psychology, relationships, roles, social conventions, suffering, the examined life, time, twentieth century, war, writing, Zeitgeist
Tagged "Portrait of Jenny", "The World of Yesterday", 9/11, artists and writers, Austro-Hungarian Empire, Bateau Mouche, beats, Big Apple, bohemians, book burning, cafes, Cool, cosmopolitan, country music, earth, Europe, European cities, German Occupation, Hemingway, hitchhiking, nazis, New York, New York in the nineteen forties, Notre Dame, Paris, Robert Frost, Stefan Zweig, Stephen Vincent Benét, The Great War, the Seine, tourists/tourism, travel, World War I, World War II
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“What Kind of a God?”
“What Kind of a God?” I have been following, with a mixture of emotions — including curiosity and claustrophobia — C. S. Lewis’s account, in Surprised by Joy, of his conversion to theism (belief in a personal God) from his … Continue reading
Posted in academe, art, culture, desire, faith, gender balance, history of ideas, life and death struggle, literature, masculinity, nineteenth-century, philosophy, political, psychology, social conventions, the examined life
Tagged Absolute, anthroposophy, élan vital, Britain, C.S. Lewis, conversion, divine, England, Henri Bergson, holistic healing, honor, human desire, Materialism, New Age, occult, Occultism, Oscar Wilde, Oxford University, philosophy, prayer, prophetic, reality, sex, Spinoza, SUNY, Surprised By Joy, theism, theosophy, World War I, yoga
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