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/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.