Dear Abbie - The Non-Advice Podcast

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 confro...

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 assumptio...

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 o...

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...

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...

"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." Explore more about  Confession...

"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 Youn...

"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 Universi...

This week, Abbie revisits the unforgettable story of Marie Antoinette. First shared in an earlier podcast, Encore Marie Antoinette reflects on what made the Queen of France so captivating—and so condemned. Was she a symbol, a scapegoat, or simply herself? 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...

 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 Confessio...

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 Br...

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 Br...

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 Bro...

What is death?  And btw, what do we aim for in life? Read this episode on my blog  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A 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 o...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A Good Look at  Evil  Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Bro...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A 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 Ph...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A Good Look at  Evil  Abigail L. Rosenthal is Professor Emerita at Brooklyn College of The City Universit...

Was “evil” trying to find out if I really meant what I wrote? Read this episode on my blog  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A 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 tra...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A Good...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A 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)...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE A Good Look at  Evil Abigail L. R...

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 o...

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  HERE Confessions of a Young Philosopher Available Now!  HERE Abigail L. Rosenthal is...

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 th...

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 Univ...