Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast
211 episodes - English - Latest episode: 7 days ago - ★★★★★ - 1 ratingI would like this podcast to start a conversation with women of all ages, convictions and styles of life – wherever situated on the gamut of experience. In principle, there is no bar to men joining in, since how one defines women has a lot to do with what it means to be a man. But it is women I invite to pull up a chair at this virtual café table and put their questions and views into the conversation. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” (www.dearabbie-nonadvice.com) where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are highly interesting. She’s the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by her father, Henry M. Rosenthal. She’s written numerous articles that can be accessed at Academia.edu .
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Episodes
The Most Complex Trip Imaginable
April 18, 2024 15:00 - 10 minutes - 7.48 MBSo fifty seconds with an airline dispatcher? What are the odds? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives are highly interesting. Many...
Rocky Mountain Lowdown
April 11, 2024 18:00 - 13 minutes - 9.09 MBIn sum, it’s not true that everything has changed since the Shoah. Sadly, very little has changed. . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why wome...
Moses and Me
April 04, 2024 16:00 - 10 minutes - 7.48 MBThe reason I have trouble with Moses is that his basic task seems to me different. God is not just asking him to bring himself into being. The Lord is asking Moses to bring a people into being! Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-...
World History and Me
March 28, 2024 15:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBLast night I watched a documentary about the “discovery” by Europeans of the Western Hemisphere – that vast tract of land between Europe and the India that the spice-hunters sought. In my childhood, that discovery was chronicled without scare quotes, as the collected tales of intrepid adventurers and pioneers who stepped onto the shores of a virgin continent, and whose courage and future-directed hopes made it possible for my immediate forebears to live and be well in America. America! Wher...
Death, Dying, and Heroes
March 21, 2024 15:00 - 10 minutes - 7.5 MBSo, if death is ordinarily not that bad – a big relief, even – why the dread of dying? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives are hi...
September 11, A Week Later –
March 14, 2024 15:00 - 21 minutes - 14.9 MBThis post, written the week after September 11, 2011, is dedicated to Frank De Martini and Pablo Ortiz. Starting at the 88th floor on the North Tower, they went from floor to floor calling out to people who crouched in debris and darkness, without a clue as to what to do or where to go. “Is anybody there?” they called, gathering and shepherding people to hold on to each other and make their way down the stairs to the street below before the building fell. They are said to have saved 77 lives...
Success in San Francisco
March 07, 2024 19:00 - 10 minutes - 7.37 MBThe trip wasn’t exactly a willing one on my part because my spouse had talked me into giving a paper at the conference where he was to chair a panel and present his own paper. I hadn’t given any philosophical papers since taking early retirement at Brooklyn College. I’d forgotten how to breathe when you read something you wrote. The topic I’d written about might prove very unpopular. And, like many (but not all) women, invisibility is my preferred state. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor E...
Léo
February 29, 2024 16:00 - 11 minutes - 7.89 MBLéo was Laurin’s philosophy of art teacher at Brandeis University. He was also my father’s closest friend and a sort of godfather to me, from my earliest days and continuing into adult life. As we talked in a Brazilian café on sixth avenue, way downtown, Laurin shared a story about Léo. I have heard him tell it before. I’ve never understood why it has such an effect on me. Maybe if I tell it here, I’ll know its meaning better or someone who reads this can explain it to me.
Zeitgeist
February 22, 2024 15:00 - 11 minutes - 8.13 MBWhat is it about the Zeitgeist? It’s never quite feasible to pretend it’s not real or to dodge it completely – unless you’ve managed to carve out an existence on an uninhabited Pacific island or a solitary mountain peak. It’s hard to define it and harder to explain it satisfactorily, but you know it when you see it. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which ...
Apologies to Kierkegaard
February 15, 2024 16:00 - 10 minutes - 7.41 MBIn a previous post or two of “Dear Abbie,” I found myself sharply critical – denunciatory even – of Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855). He is the Danish philosopher/theologian who is still studied by serious people today, both inside and outside classrooms. I denounced him for having used his considerable talent, his genius really, to capture the heart, mind and soul of a girl to whom he first proposed marriage and jilted not long after. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn Coll...
Frustrations and Epiphanies
February 08, 2024 16:00 - 15 minutes - 10.6 MBOur quiet town, with its Victorian houses (many of them kept in good repair by the law firms that have taken them over), its charming signs of civic care and pride, has for some years also been the scene of a performance that I for one find deeply frustrating and troubling. Every Tuesday, between 5:00 and 7:00 p.m., the main square in town is occupied by men and women holding up large placards that read, in big letters, “Justice for Palestine,” “No to Apartheid” and “No to War.” . . . Abig...
A Funny Thing Happened to Philosophy (on its way to the deepest depths)
February 01, 2024 15:00 - 12 minutes - 8.65 MBIn the entire history of philosophy, we know of nothing like it. No betrayal on that scale of the loyalty owed by a philosopher to his teacher and his students. It’s without precedent, so far as I know. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie...
Why Women Are Mean to Other Women
January 25, 2024 16:00 - 11 minutes - 8.07 MBWhew! This is a touchy subject. Almost taboo, since we are these days denominated the compassionate, caring, anti-violence sex. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," wh...
About Confessions of a Young Philosopher
January 18, 2024 16:00 - 8 minutes - 6.07 MBWell, I am a person who, for most of her life, has carried a number of secrets. Possibly for that reason, or possibly because, temperamentally, I experience every encounter in an extra-amplified way, I try to tip toe through the world unheard and unseen. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rouss...
Wonder Woman
January 11, 2024 16:00 - 6 minutes - 4.78 MBOne 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. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "...
Memoirs, True or False?
January 04, 2024 16:00 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBDoes this truth-behind-the-mask change anything for the philosophical reader? I can’t speak for anybody else, but I take philosophy very seriously. I’ll tell you what it changes for me. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice C...
The Woman on the Pedestal
December 28, 2023 18:00 - 13 minutes - 9.24 MBIn public, many feminists repudiate the whole structure: the pedestal and the woman trying to stand on it. I don’t. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she exp...
Is Virtue Rewarded?
December 21, 2023 16:00 - 11 minutes - 7.98 MBIs a woman’s virtue rewarded? And, by the way, what do we mean by woman’s virtue nowadays? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives ar...
A Chosen People?
December 14, 2023 16:00 - 12 minutes - 8.87 MBMy explanation is simpler and covers all the cases. They are hated because God chose them. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives a...
Jews on the Brain
December 07, 2023 16:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBHell, I like happy endings. Does this story contain one? Oh sure. When the messiah comes, or comes back if you prefer, we’re all gonna go to our happy place. But within the terms of our present discussion? Any happy ending here and now? . . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She wr...
Believe You Me
November 30, 2023 17:00 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBLast Saturday, in Torah Study, we read Numbers 16, the chapter where there’s a rebellion against the leadership of Moses. Korah and his faction of 250 Levite elders give voice to the uprising. Why should Moses continue in the leadership as the holiest Israelite? Isn’t the whole community holy? Who made him the CEO of holiness? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming...
Treachery and Transcendence
November 23, 2023 17:00 - 13 minutes - 9.57 MBIn my whole life, I have never been so angry. . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives are highly interesting. Many of her article...
Yom HaShoah
November 16, 2023 18:00 - 11 minutes - 7.66 MBI can’t “normalize” the past. Yet I’m aware of its insidious presence in our world. It’s true, many people have been persecuted and massacred, for all kinds of reasons — having nothing to do with this theology. But it is the longest hatred, of a single target, in recorded history. I often say that, in my next life, I’m coming back Swedish. But now I’m in this life. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessi...
Microaggression: Woman on Woman
November 09, 2023 16:00 - 12 minutes - 8.44 MBAs anyone knows who knows me, I detest the very word “microaggression.” To me, it’s part of a newly weaponized jargon that allows any accuser to put on the mantle of victimhood and leave the accused to fight her own way back to social safety. That said, I can’t think of another title for the story I’m about to share with you. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming)...
“I, A Happy Woman?”
November 02, 2023 15:00 - 8 minutes - 5.74 MBSo what message did I get this morning? What came to me was merely this: I am happy. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Podcast," where she explains why women's lives are hig...
The Ex-Terrorist Comes To Town
October 26, 2023 15:00 - 16 minutes - 11.4 MBOur temple sponsored a lecture by Kasim Hafeez, a Brit of Pakistani origin who had seriously resolved to give his life for jihad and then changed his mind. Everybody on the planet has an interest in finding out whether that can happen, and if so, how. His talk was titled, “Hate to Hope: The Day I Stopped Hating Israel.” . . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming)...
Political Innocence
October 19, 2023 15:00 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBIf each of us were sure we were right, we would never quarrel with anyone – much less break with friends – over politics. The politically-triggered quarrels, friendship breakages, civil-society breakdowns, result from our insecurity over what we think true in the conflict zones of public life... Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confessio...
The Blame Game
October 12, 2023 16:00 - 16 minutes - 11.3 MBWe don’t start life with a clean slate. Childhood is the time we spend figuring out what kind of a hand of cards we’ve been dealt and how to start playing it. What happens to us – inside ourselves – when we embark on the project of blaming others (or accepting blame) for the original hand that they, or we, were dealt? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which ...
Getting to Objectivity
October 05, 2023 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.91 MBLately I’ve been reading a book titled What is Fiction For? The British philosopher Bernard Harrison wrote it to defend novels – defend writing them and reading them – from the accusation that they don’t tell the truth . . . ! Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly onl...
Obsequies for Dennis Delcau
September 28, 2023 17:00 - 9 minutes - 6.4 MB“Because you were here,” I said, “now when people speak of God, they speak as if He’s real. And, when they speak of Israel, they speak as if it’s important.” Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of Confessions of A Young Philosopher (forthcoming), which is a woman's "confession" in the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau. She writes a weekly online column, "Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column" along with "Dear Abbi...
Are the Stories We Live True?
September 21, 2023 17:00 - 14 minutes - 9.94 MBGood people try to live the sorts of stories that will solve the problems of their lives as reasonably and realistically as they can. Meanwhile, evil people aim to mess up good people’s stories. When I first spoke in public about my view (later published in A Good Look at Evil) colleagues either treated it as a fantasy or as something a girl would like to think, poor dear. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of ...
Should the Dead Know Their Place?
September 14, 2023 16:00 - 11 minutes - 8.18 MBWhat are the dead up to? Are they just nonexistent? Many philosophers believe that and most would rather be annihilated than wrong. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women...
Paying Nostalgia Forward
September 07, 2023 16:00 - 11 minutes - 7.97 MBWhen I met Jerry and we fell in love, I recognized the real thing and knew I had to reshape my life to give it breathing and growing room. We found a place to live as a couple – not his Washington DC and not my New York – because love is serious. You can’t kid around. You have to give it its place. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in...
Freud and Fradulence
August 31, 2023 16:00 - 14 minutes - 10.3 MBWhat’s it to me? Well, I have entered the lists to combat the Freud claims and their cultural influence in a number of books and articles. So this is something of which I’ve long been convinced. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The...
Is the Bible True?
August 24, 2023 16:00 - 13 minutes - 9.35 MBTwo questions: Why should any educated person care? Whaddya mean by “true”? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are highly interesting. She’s...
Getting a Grip
August 17, 2023 17:00 - 11 minutes - 8.12 MBOur temple had the guest visit of a kabbalist over the weekend. It was very creative on the part of our leadership to invite him, so I hate to say this but – everybody liked it but me . . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-...
My Interview on God An Autobiography - The Podcast - Shared Journeys: Marriage and Divine Encounters
August 10, 2023 17:00 - 47 minutes - 32.7 MBDeparting from our usual format for this week's podcast we have the interview with me by my husband Jerry L. Martin on his podcast God: An Autobiography. In his interview for The Life Wisdom Project Series, Jerry asks for my reactions to one of the key episodes from the podcast and his book God: An Autobiography As Told to a Philosopher. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a...
Putting the Puzzle Pieces in Place
August 03, 2023 17:00 - 9 minutes - 6.46 MBThe philosophic issues haven’t gone away. Evil hasn’t gotten stale. It’s alive, well and prevalent as ever. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s liv...
It Is No Secret
July 27, 2023 16:00 - 13 minutes - 9 MBYears ago, when I was first in Jerusalem, I put a note in the Western Wall. “Did you pray at the Wall?” my Israeli cousins asked me, with their native-born, knowing irony. “Of course,” I rejoined. “Do you think I’m going to spend hundreds of dollars on an El Al ticket and not pray at the Wall?” Pilgrims and tourists put private notes in the crevices of the Herodian stonework (of the outermost retaining wall of the Second Temple), with the petitions of their inmost hearts. What was written...
Where's the Self?
July 20, 2023 16:00 - 13 minutes - 9.02 MBSo where’s the self? It’s found in the acts of living and defending one’s story. Is the self at risk? Yeah it is. Evil is absolutely out to get it. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the si...
Real Life and Philosophic Life
July 13, 2023 18:00 - 11 minutes - 7.83 MBHow does philosophy help the fight to live meaningfully? Does philosophy come into it at all? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are highly ...
Hundreds of People
July 06, 2023 18:00 - 13 minutes - 9.17 MBMy private walled-in house is whirling through the high winds. We’re not in Kansas any more. . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are high...
Men Worth Remembering
June 29, 2023 17:00 - 12 minutes - 8.53 MBAbout the first insight: my father had always been quite mysterious to me. I’d gone into philosophy partly to try and understand him. Now at last, it seems, I get what he was . . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Co...
Selling Yourself
June 22, 2023 16:00 - 8 minutes - 6.2 MBWhat I fear is taking the real, unmasked me into a wider arena – or trying to. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’s lives are highly interesting. Sh...
The Unconscious
June 15, 2023 15:00 - 13 minutes - 9.15 MB.It’s Da King. Not Elvis. The Unconscious is the biggest thing around. Everything – everything you can mention – is under its iron heel. . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situatio...
Heroes and Patriots
June 08, 2023 16:00 - 11 minutes - 7.71 MBWhen I heard that the American ambassador to Libya had been killed in a surprise attack on an U.S. embassy outpost in Benghazi, I felt it very much, as a wound on the body of our country. We are not collections of atoms in the void. We are made possible by the polities in which we gain the features of our humanity. A man is sent into the field to represent us all abroad. He is murdered there. It’s a violation of the most serious kind, of the peace between nations that an ambassador mediates,...
Chivalry
June 01, 2023 17:00 - 11 minutes - 7.73 MBI cannot advise anyone as to whose election to the presidency of the United States would be worse for the future of the republic. About that, I have no special expertise. Personally, my concern is with the chivalry of men and the honor of women. But these are big, nay, vast topics. One way to cash them in for concrete value is, after all, to take up the question: which is worse? Or, to put it another way, what is going on here that is of specific concern to women? Abigail L. Rosenthal is Pr...
The Moral Drama of the World
May 25, 2023 17:00 - 8 minutes - 6.14 MBWhen I focus my mind on the new anti-semitism, I see only evil, sui generis, immemorial, incurable as a human phenomenon and perennially prepared to spring its ambush. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where...
When Animals Talk Back
May 18, 2023 18:00 - 9 minutes - 6.79 MBWell, first of all, I’m a pretty literal girl. I never take things metaphorically or symbolically if there’s a literal way to take them. I try not to regard anything as mysterious if there’s a way to take it plain and straight up. As the late Leo Bronstein used to say, the mystery is in the mystification. Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now app...
The Completed ‘Confessions of a Young Philosopher'
May 11, 2023 17:00 - 7 minutes - 5.44 MBI finished a life work. I mean, finished it to my satisfaction. It’s done – as I always hoped it could be. . . . Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita of Philosophy, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York. She is the author of A Good Look at Evil, a Pulitzer Prize nominee, now appearing in an expanded second edition and as audiobooks. Dr. Rosenthal writes a weekly column for “Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column,” where she explores the situation of women. She thinks women’...