Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast

Abigail L. Rosenthal
  • 5.0 (1)
  • Philosophy
  • Updated Weekly

I 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 .

  1. 3d ago

    Antisemitism, Cain and Abel, and the Roots of Hatred | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 4.1

    Why does antisemitism keep returning? In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin begin Part Four, the Aftermath and final section of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, with Abigail’s idea of “passionate history.” The conversation begins with Abigail seeing her former Paris lover years later and finding that he had developed strong antisemitic views. From there, Abbie and Jerry explore the difference between objective history and the history people actually live - shaped by memory, meaning, responsibility, and the choices they make after disappointment or defeat. Their discussion moves through Cain and Abel, sibling rivalry, Jewish history, the Holocaust, and the temptation to blame an outside enemy rather than face what has actually gone wrong. For Abbie, antisemitism is not only a political or historical problem. It is also a problem of how people understand their own lives, their failures, and their place in history. The episode asks what happens when people stop living honestly within the sequence of their own experience - when memory is avoided, responsibility is displaced, and an enemy is brought in to explain a defeat that came from somewhere else.  In Abigail’s account, that act of deflection is part of what makes antisemitism so persistent, and why the story of Cain and Abel still matters. Continue exploring Confessions of a Young Philosopher Get the book: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://dearabbie-nonadvice.com/confessions-of-a-young-philosopher-2/ Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  2. Sep 24

    A Mother’s Wisdom: Finding Sanity After Brainwashing | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 3.4

    The strange world Abigail entered under Suzanne’s influence has reached its breaking point. Letters are being sent in Abigail’s name, passports and ordinary conventions have lost their authority, and the Gnostic system that once promised access to a higher truth is carrying her farther from the ground beneath her feet. In this concluding episode of Part Three of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin follow the story through its most dramatic turn: Abbie's return to New York, hospitalization, and the intervention of a mother whose wisdom proves more durable than an elaborate philosophy. When Abbie insists that she has proved God’s power, her mother offers a devastatingly simple observation: a system can possess an internal logic and still be unreal. Later, when Abbie says she had been happy in the Gnostic religion, her mother answers that she will find “a saner happiness.” That exchange opens the way back. Abbie begins to recover confidence in the suspicions she had learned to distrust and in the reality of psyche and soma, spirit and body. The ordinary world, once dismissed as spiritually inadequate, becomes vivid again - a place worth entering rather than escaping. As Part Three of Confessions of a Young Philosopher comes to a close, Jerry and Abbie consider brainwashing, Gnosticism, sanity, feminine wisdom, and what it means to discover that truth cannot be secured by leaving reality behind. Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions follows philosophers Abigail Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin as they revisit Abigail’s philosophical memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, and the experiences that shaped her search for truth. *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  3. Sep 17

    The Cult of One: Brainwashing, Manipulation, and the Search for Truth | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 3.3

    Abigail L Rosenthal thought she had entered a philosophical thought experiment. Now she is forced to consider something far more disturbing: whether her relationship with Suzanne has become a form of brainwashing. In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin continue their discussion of Gnosticism, spiritual power, and the strange hold Suzanne has gained over Abbie's life. Abbie still cannot dismiss Suzanne as simply a con artist. Some of what she experiences seems genuinely powerful, leaving her determined to find out what is authentic, what is manipulation, and how she has been drawn so deeply into Suzanne’s world. Their conversation turns to Robert Lifton’s work on brainwashing, the use of guilt and isolation as tools of control, and the danger of a spiritual worldview in which doubt itself can be treated as evidence of failure. Abbie also identifies another force that helped keep her there: the pressures of womanhood and the fear that time was running out. Her search for truth had become entangled with the hope that ordinary limits, including chronology itself, might somehow be overcome. *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  4. Sep 10

    The Search for Perfection: Gnostic Christianity and Spiritual Power | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 3.2

    Abigail L. Rosenthal is searching for a way out of a life that no longer seems to be working. Then she meets Suzanne. Suzanne speaks with unusual authority. She wants to be perfect. She calls herself a Gnostic Christian. She seems able to move through difficult situations without fear, without losing her femininity, and without accepting the limits that govern everyone else. Abigail is skeptical, but she is also fascinated. Suzanne appears to possess something Abigail desperately wants: a way to rise above the slow, grinding consequences of ordinary life. What begins as curiosity soon becomes much more serious. Abigail starts experimenting with Suzanne’s belief that spirit alone is real and that the obstacles of everyday life may not be as solid as they appear. She thinks she is conducting a thought experiment. In fact, she is undergoing a conversion. In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Jerry L. Martin and Abigail revisit the moment when Suzanne’s strange spiritual worldview stopped being merely interesting and began to reshape Abigail’s life. *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  5. Sep 3

    Intelligent Hope: When Life No Longer Makes Sense | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 3.1

    What happens when the ideas that once gave your life direction no longer seem to work? In this episode, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin explore the meaning of intelligent hope as Abigail reaches a breaking point in her philosophical and personal life. After years of trying to reconcile femininity, philosophy, love, and truth, she leaves for England with many of her earlier hopes exhausted. Their conversation turns to the difference between hope and wishful thinking, why Abigail believes hope must be grounded in truth, and what it means to keep going without pretending that everything will work out. Along the way, they discuss Hegel, Aristotle, Thoreau, Gandhi, the British class system, and Abigail’s encounter with Suzanne, whose simplicity and confidence begin to suggest a different way through the confusion. At the center is a difficult question: when your old beliefs have run aground, what can still guide you forward? *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  6. Aug 27

    Can a Woman Be Feminine and a Philosopher? | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 2.4

    Can a woman be feminine and a philosopher? Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin explore the tension between femininity and intellectual life, drawing on Abigail’s experience as a philosophy student at Penn State during a time when philosophy was often treated as a distinctly masculine pursuit. Abigail recalls being told that if she wanted to make real progress in philosophy, she would have to give up or even “destroy” her femininity. Rather than accept that choice, she tried to understand whether a woman could pursue serious philosophical thought without becoming alienated from an essential part of herself. The conversation moves through Simone de Beauvoir, Freud, feminism, Hegel, Merleau-Ponty, romantic desire, cultural expectations, and Abigail’s effort to understand the philosophical divide between herself and her former lover, Pheidias. At the center is a larger question: how do you remain true to yourself when the culture around you insists that two parts of your identity cannot belong together? *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  7. Aug 20

    When Ideals Become Dangerous: Courage, Revolution, and Conviction | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 2.3

    What happens when living by your ideals becomes dangerous? In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin continue their discussion of Confessions of a Young Philosopher with the stories of John Armstrong and Anna. John was a fellow Fulbright student in Paris who wanted to test whether his ideals of courage, honor, and integrity could survive in the real world. His decision to travel through Africa would end tragically. Abigail also remembers Anna, a friend drawn to the romance of the Cuban Revolution. Her story leads Abigail and Jerry into a discussion of political idealism, revolutionary movements, and what can happen when ideals collide with reality. They also discuss Albert Camus, existentialism, the philosophy of the absurd, personal integrity, and Abigail's belief that these lives were tragic rather than meaningless. How do we know when an ideal is worth following? When does courage become recklessness? And what does it really mean to live by what you claim to believe? Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 2.3 explores courage, revolution, idealism, tragedy, and the difficult cost of conviction. *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

  8. Aug 13

    Secrecy, Truth, and the Aftermath of First Love | Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions 2.2

    In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Jerry L. Martin and Abigail L. Rosenthal continue their conversation about the aftermath of Abigail’s first love and the complicated truth she carried home from Paris.  Abigail reflects on heartbreak, secrecy, the loss of innocence, and why telling the truth can sometimes distort an experience rather than preserve it. The conversation explores romantic disappointment, privacy, cultural expectations for women, psychoanalysis, and Abigail’s search for narrative continuity as she tries to understand what the relationship meant and what would follow from it.  Jerry and Abigail also consider whether women today have enough space to acknowledge the emotional consequences of first love and heartbreak without reducing those experiences to familiar social or psychological categories. Get a glimpse into next week’s episode as Abigail begins the story of her friend John Armstrong, a fellow Fulbright scholar whose ideals would lead him on a journey with tragic consequences. *** Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically. Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqo Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal is a distinguished philosopher, educator and author of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, (following the tradition of Augustine and Rousseau, but from a woman’s perspective, with illustrations) and of A Good Look At Evil, Pulitzer-nominated. Through her platform, Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column, Abigail engages her audience with thought-provoking blogs and podcasts, discussing among other things the fascinating intricacies of women’s lives and shedding light on contemporary experience. Her philosophical and other articles span a wide range of topics which can be found in academia. She is also the editor of The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes’s Secret; Spinoza’s Way by Henry M. Rosenthal, her late father.

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I 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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