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?

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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.

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?

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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.

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.