Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

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/1ypibqoExplore 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.

What does it mean to be one of God's chosen people, and why does the Jewish covenant carry both honor and an impossible burden?In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, philosophers Jerry L. Martin and Abigail L. Rosenthal explore “Of the Impossible Position of the Jews,” the opening chapter of Part Two of Abigail's book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Jerry and Abigail discuss the meaning of the Jewish covenant, why the Jews became a “pilot project” in humanity's relationship with God, and how the Hebrew Bible introduced a vision of history in which human actions are seen, remembered, and judged. Abigail describes God as the divine witness whose presence gives moral significance to what people do in the real world.Their conversation also examines the burden of being God's chosen people, the high expectations placed upon the Jews, Jewish self-criticism, supersessionism, moral responsibility, and the difference between aggression and self-defense.Ultimately, the discussion reaches beyond Jewish history to ask whether every person is called to live in partnership with God, conscious that our actions matter and that our lives unfold under the “white light of truth.”***Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

What does desire reveal about the difference between men and women?In this episode, married philosophers Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin return to a striking passage from Confessions of a Young Philosopher: “My heavy head of hair bent under his dominion.”The word dominion is deliberate. Abigail does not mean cruelty, degradation, or the loss of freedom. She means the peculiar power of eros: the experience of being enveloped and overcome within an embrace while remaining fully oneself.The conversation moves from Abigail's life in Paris to Plato, Rodin's The Kiss, Adam and Eve, and the modern effort to make relations between men and women entirely symmetrical. Abigail argues that erotic life has its own form and its own meanings, asymmetrical in nature, which lovers do not invent but discover.Has modern culture confused equality with sameness? Has it concealed the difference between domination and erotic dominion? And what is lost when sex is reduced to biology, recreation, or power?In this intelligent and unusually candid discussion, Abigail and Jerry consider desire, sexual difference, and the forgotten choreography of eros.***Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

After her violating experience with Phidias leaves Abigail frightened, heartbroken, and facing the possibility of pregnancy, she turns to her friend Harper.Instead of judgment, Harper gives Abigail the gift of recognition. Understanding more than Abigail expects, she offers practical help, kindness, and what Abigail later calls “that pearl without price”: feminine solidarity.In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin explore female friendship, abortion and sin, feminine innocence, romantic idealism, and the vulnerability women often learn to hide.Their conversation also returns to Phidias and to the uneasy distance between romantic love and the cold, clinical language that can make intimacy feel ordinary or shopworn.What can one woman offer another when innocence has been shaken and the future feels uncertain? Sometimes, the beginning of an answer is simply discovering that someone else understands.***Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

In Part 1.3 of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin continue their conversation on Part One of Confessions of a Young Philosopher.After her innocence has been taken through seduction and manipulation, Abigail confronts a more difficult truth: beneath the violation, there may also have been something like love. Looking back on her first romantic relationship, she reflects on the authority of intuition, the pity that can arise from love, and the desire to repair an experience that cannot be undone.Jerry and Abigail examine the mixture of manipulation and romantic idealization that shaped the relationship, including the young man's vision of Abigail as Dante's Beatrice and an embodiment of the eternal feminine. Yet the episode moves beyond the question of whether he loved her. It asks what happens when first love, injury, innocence, and philosophical longing become impossible to separate.At the riverbank, believing herself ruined and without a future, Abigail considers whether her life has ended along with her innocence. Philosophy offers another possibility: to continue the argument, live through the unanswered questions, and pursue the unfinished love of wisdom.The conversation ultimately turns toward a question Abigail would later ask two women considering suicide: What did you originally want before disappointment made life seem hopeless?After innocence, what remains is not a simple answer, but the unfinished work of understanding love, injury, and the life one had originally hoped to live.***Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

In Part 1.2 of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail L. Rosenthal and Jerry L. Martin continue their conversation on Part One of Confessions of a Young Philosopher.In Paris, a café conversation between two young philosophy students turns suddenly from politics to love. What begins as argument and intellectual sparring becomes Abigail's first romantic encounter, forcing her to confront not only desire, but innocence, vulnerability, and the meaning of a woman's body in the eyes of another.Jerry and Abigail explore the unsettling philosophical backdrop of the scene: a world shaped by Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud, and Marx, where innocence can no longer easily be defended. Abigail reflects on erotic validation, existential terror, the loss of a hoped-for future, and what she calls “the rights of inhibition” — the possibility that hesitation and restraint may protect something real.Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

What does it mean to be desired—and what happens if you are not?In Part One of Confessions of a Young Philosopher, Abigail L. Rosenthal arrives in Paris on a Fulbright fellowship and encounters a culture that seems to make space for romantic love in a way that 1950s America did not. Along the Seine, in the cafés, and throughout the Latin Quarter, she observes a world shaped by different assumptions about love, desire, and the place of romance in human life.In this episode of Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, Abigail and Jerry L. Martin explore the influence of the medieval love story Tristan and Iseult, the French understanding of romantic passion, and a question that haunted many young women of Abigail's generation: Is being desired part of what it means to become a fully realized woman?Their conversation examines the tension between intellectual ambition and romantic longing, the relationship between feminine identity and fulfillment, and the challenge of pursuing high ideals while remaining honest about the realities of love and desire. Drawing on Jewish history, philosophy, and personal experience, Abigail reflects on why she resisted what she saw as "Plan B" answers to life's deepest questions and why truth, for her, had to be sought in lived experience rather than abstraction.Part memoir, part philosophical conversation, and part cultural history, this chapter introduces one of the central themes of Confessions of a Young Philosopher: how to reconcile the search for meaning with the realities of love, desire, and human vulnerability.Join us as we continue Abigail's journey through Paris, philosophy, romance, and the questions that would shape the rest of her life.Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

What do you carry with you when you leave home for the first time?In Married Philosophers Discuss Confessions, philosophers Jerry L. Martin and Abigail L. Rosenthal revisit Abigail's memoir, Confessions of a Young Philosopher, chapter by chapter. Married for decades, they look back together on the experiences, relationships, ideas, and historical events that shaped the young woman Abigail once was, and the life she would eventually build.In this opening episode, they begin with the book's preface and Abigail's departure for Paris on a Fulbright fellowship. As she reflects on the beliefs she carried with her into adulthood, the conversation explores true love, erotic desire, cynicism, faith, Jewish identity, and the determination to test ideas through lived experience rather than merely admire them from afar.Along the way, Abigail recalls growing up in a household shaped by Holocaust memory, her parents' efforts to help refugee families escape Europe, her mother's role in exposing a suspected Nazi operative in New York during World War II, and an unforgettable encounter with Raphael Lemkin, the architect of the Genocide Convention.Part memoir, part philosophical conversation, and part historical reflection, this episode introduces the themes that run throughout Confessions of a Young Philosopher: love and longing, intellectual ambition, faith and doubt, family history, moral responsibility, and the search for meaning in a complicated world.Join us as we begin the journey through Confessions of a Young Philosopher and follow Abigail's story from Paris and first independence through love, loss, philosophy, friendship, desire, and the unexpected lessons of a life fully lived.Join the discussion and explore a life lived philosophically.Get the book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher: https://a.co/d/1ypibqoExplore 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.

In this deeply personal and spiritually rich episode, philosopher Jerry L. Martin is joined by Abigail L. Rosenthal on his podcast God An Autobiography for an intimate conversation about divine encounters, spiritual awakening, and what it means to experience a radically personal God. Drawing from Jerry's new book Radically Personal: God and Ourselves in the New Axial Age, the discussion explores how spiritual truth is not one-size-fits-all and why each individual's connection to the divine can look entirely unique.Jerry reflects on being called to tell God's story across different cultures and religious traditions, while Abigail shares a powerful mystical experience that sustained her through a long and painful chapter in her life. Together, they discuss Jewish philosophy, personal spirituality, the rejection of Original Sin, and how trusting one's inner spiritual compass can lead to deep transformation.This episode speaks directly to seekers, skeptics, and anyone exploring their own spiritual path. It is a thoughtful and emotional journey into faith and doubt, divine presence, mystical experience, and the call to live with spiritual purpose.Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

In this episode, Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal  joins her husband Dr. Jerry L. Martin on his podcast God An Autobiography to ask a question deeply human and spiritually profound: What is love and what does it reveal about the nature of the world we live in?Jerry and Abigail remind us that truth is not always found in the dominant worldview. Often, it comes from moments that break through: a glance, a conversation, a shared fight for something that matters.This intimate dialogue speaks to those who live at the edge of conventional categories, those who are spiritual but not religious, seekers of meaning, lovers of wisdom.If you've ever felt there must be more to love than psychology, more to life than surface logic, this is your episode.Begin here. With feeling. With thought. With two philosophers, in love.Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

"God is not fooled. Everybody else could be fooled, but in that respect—just as you can't fool a child by pretending to be benevolent and love the cute little number when you don't—the child is not fooled. The dog is not fooled. You know, there are humble creatures in life who are simply not fooled by grown-up pretenses, and God seems to be in that number."

"I did feel obligated, as a Jewish girl who was not stupid, to situate my life on the larger map of human striving in a world that was wide, not narrow. I wanted to know where I was and not just in the realm of personal options. I sought to get my bearings and location in human history itself. I just wanted to know how to find me in the bigger story.”Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

"If we're talking about how to understand the Abigail who sets forth on her life journey in the opening pages of this book, I could be deemed naive. But about the hovering presence of unspeakable horror at the outside of this visual screen of the world that I was looking at, I couldn't be unaware of that."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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

 Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) are discussing her just-published book Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) pursue their discussion of Beginningwise, which is Part One of her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let's see how their discussion goes forward.Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) pursue their discussion of Beginningwise, which is Part One of her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let's see how their discussion goes forward.Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Dr. Jerry L. Martin and Dr. Abigail L. Rosenthal (author of Dear Abbie: The Non-Advice Column) begin their discussion of Beginningwise, which is Part One of her new book, Confessions of a Young Philosopher. Let's see how their discussion goes forward.Explore more about Confessions of a Young Philosopher.Get Confessions of a Young Philosopher.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

What is death?  And btw, what do we aim for in life?Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Notre Dame is the heart of Paris.  No one builds like that today.  By contrast, efforts have been made to replace the World Trade Center – not adequately, in my view, but a building of the same form could be replicated were one so minded.Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

By contrast nowadays, to depict persons or things “honestly,” it's thought that they must be rendered ungainly or in some way visually absurd.Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Getting ready for bed, I thought of this vast sea of suffering.  I prayed to see it clear – to be shown its inner features and the size of it — relative to humanity as a whole.  In what world do we live?Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Was “evil” trying to find out if I really meant what I wrote?Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

On my night table for last read of the evening is a book with the title, Forbidden Knowledge.  It concerns a topic that I'd never considered as such: whether there are, or ought to be, built-in limits to what we as human beings should seek to know.Aristotle said,“All men by nature desire to know.”Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Lately, I've had a growing sense of living my life on something I call “Jewish Time.”  Have I anything concrete in view?Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

It is the town where my mother captured the Nazi spy ring being run out of the basement of the walkup apartment on 86th and Park where our family lived during the War years.  My mother wondered why our superintendent did not allow suitcases to be stored in the basement. . . Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

It happened like this.  I was remembering a case I know of, where a young woman, who had her whole life before her, was being forced into the sealed back of a truck.  Uniformed Nazis were turning a hose filled with carbon monoxide into the space where they had confined the young woman and her family.  This occurred in the late 1930's, the run-up decade before the Holocaust. . .Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREA Good Look at  Evil 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Even to suggest that feminism's theoretical foundations need reworking might seem a tad risky. Well, gee, that's tough. As I sometimes said when I taught Philosophic Foundations of Feminism: “If I wanna be pushed around, I don't need other feminists. I can find a man to do it.” . . .Read this episode on my blog  HEREConfessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HEREAbigail 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

So what's it all about, economic life?  People will kill and die for their economic theories, but the theories never quite square with the way things are – behind the theorizing.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Facebook had an advertisement for something called Equine Gestalt Coaching Method. I consider horses to be good for you, with or without the “Gestalt” part. But I hadn't found any safe way of being around them since I was last in the saddle. I was thrown at a run and really can't count on falling so well next time . . .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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

When you think of it, the anti-semite's belief pays a sort of inverted tribute to the claim God makes for the descendants of Father Abraham:In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.It's God's very promise to the Jews, only with the word “cursed” put in place of “blessed.”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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

I have just been reading the youthful correspondence between my future father, Henry M. Rosenthal, and his best friend in college and for some years thereafter, Lionel Trilling.  Trilling went on to make for himself the most brilliant career of his generation as a public intellectual.  Since they had been so very close, I never knew exactly why my father broke it off with him, but that could well have been the reason.  On the race track of life, it's hard to eat your friend's dust. . . 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

In the claims and counter-claims of real life, what is to count as evidence?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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

So how does one stay real, and stay in real life, at times of utter frustration? 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

 “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”These words — set down as a belief, not a question — are among the last lines in the diary of Anne Frank, before the Frank family's hiding place was betrayed and the Nazis came for them all.   Did she still believe that in Bergen Belsen, the concentration camp where she died?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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Of course, many a woman has tried to save a man to her own detriment and without succeeding.  There are excellent reasons to warn a girl against embracing such an ideal.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

 “People live and die by ideas!” “You are what you think – much more than what you eat!”With encouraging words like these, I would try to persuade students in an intro course to see the study of philosophy as a help and benefit to themselves.  Many did, at least for a little while, I think.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

If you think we weren't scared, think again.  We each have a long list of very realistic reasons to believe that we can't – without extreme diminishment – survive the loss of the other.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

Do men and women now treat each other better than they once did? The feminist revolution peeled off the conventions that used to govern relations between the sexes. Yet man-woman relations seem never to have been in worse shape, the exaggerations from the #MeToo movement matched by the vileness of powerful men who've targeted vulnerable women.A New York firefighter once told me that his training required walking into the fire, since it's easier fought from inside. Walking into the fire is exactly what Phyllis Chesler does in her memoir . . .

Nudnik: “A nudnik is not just a nuisance; to merit the status of nudnik, a nuisance must be the most persistent, talkative, obnoxious, indomitable, and indefatigable nag.”  The Joys of Yiddish, by Leo Rosten.As for “Nudnikerie,” the coinage is mine.  I hope and trust it will pass into general usage.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

There people know you in the round.  If you want to do something you don't want the whole town to know, don't do it in Milbridge.  By the same token, if you want to make up a damaging story about someone of whom the town knows no evil:Don't do it in Milbridge.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

What's the best way to live?  What's the best way to die? 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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without 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 are highly interesting. Many of her articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.We live under the sheltering umbrellas of our worldviews.  To the point where we would feel naked if we were caught in the street without them.

We are social beings, so nobody likes to be shunned.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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.

It's occurred to me that, several times in the past, I succeeded better at an effort when I didn't do it for me.   I don't mean that I got “ego” out of the way, whatever that means.  What's ego?  What's necessary life force?  Which is which?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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.

The task of A Good Look at Evil is to make clear the shape of a good life and the role of evil in trying to destroy what is good in a 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 "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 articles are accessible at https://brooklyn-cuny.academia.edu/AbigailMartin. She edited The Consolations of Philosophy: Hobbes's Secret; Spinoza's Way by her father, the late Henry M. Rosenthal. She is married to Jerry L. Martin, also a philosopher. They live in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She can be reached a dearabbiesilvousplait@gmail.com.