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Coming Soon:

The following books by Robert Paul Wolff are available on Amazon.com as e-books: KANT'S THEORY OF MENTAL ACTIVITY, THE AUTONOMY OF REASON, UNDERSTANDING MARX, UNDERSTANDING RAWLS, THE POVERTY OF LIBERALISM, A LIFE IN THE ACADEMY, MONEYBAGS MUST BE SO LUCKY, AN INTRODUCTION TO THE USE OF FORMAL METHODS IN POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON KANT'S CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for "Robert Paul Wolff Kant." There they will be.

NOW AVAILABLE ON YOUTUBE: LECTURES ON THE THOUGHT OF KARL MARX. To view the lectures, go to YouTube and search for Robert Paul Wolff Marx."





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Monday, January 9, 2012

MAJOR SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY, FIRST ANNOUNCED HERE

When you are seventy-eight, it takes you longer to get over being sick.  Who knew?

When my natural animal spirits return, I think I shall start an Appreciation of Erich Auerbach;s great work, Mimesis

4 comments:

Andrew Lionel Blais said...

Adam, though his rational faculties be supposed, at the very first, entirely perfect, could not have inferred from the fluidity and transparency of water that it would suffocate him, or from the light and warmth of fire that it would consume him.

GTChristie said...

Some people don't get to 78, so what's a little more time to heal? The point is not to heel, so to speak. Be well, professor.

I am having a grand old time watching you work your way through my library. I am especially gratified that apparently my library is worthy. Auerbach's Mimesis is a work that befuddled me because I had to understand it on my own without any frame of reference (even a faulty one) to surround it or set it in context. So I swam in it, thinking one minute I'd figured out what it is about and then ... I'd turn the page and ... back in the soup. Now that may be simply insufficient erudition but I've never been able to critique that book. So I am intrigued ... please. Please put a handle on it. Any handle on it. So I can read it with some context in mind.

And then, since I am being such a fan and so effusive, I would like to make a request. Granting it is up to you, but this question has followed me for two years now as I've followed this blog:

You don't say much about your anarchism (I confess I have not read your autobio, where some of that might be). Most people think of anarchy/anarchists as a radical mob of jacobins with nothing but destruction on their minds, but there IS a theory called anarchism. I would be you're a theoretical anarchist first, a rabble-rouser second (on principle). I am not inclined that way, so I would like to see some defense of anarchism in a theoretic light (which might be like asking a libertarian to defend the rule of law -- something a bit cockeyed about the question, no?) ... but I think you understand what I mean. Defend anarchy as a theory. And, if you get ambitious, defend it as a practice. (OWS seems to exemplify the practice, but ... you tell me?)

What say you?

BTW you know I am not a Marxist and in fact do not consider myself "left," but rest assured I am genuinely curious about your position, and I am not baiting you, though I do reserve the right to differ and perhaps this particular exercise could become a debate in a teapot ... friendly enough of course. I am a fan, after all.

Again, be well. Happy 2012.

Michael said...

GTChristie,
What do you mean by "context"? I've only read "Mimesis" piecemeal (the first and last chapters as it were) but found it fairly clear, if still formidable and overwhelmingly erudite. So I'm not sure what your difficulty is.

And do get well soon Professor.

GTChristie said...

Michael. As I said, my difficulty probably is a lack of erudition which limits my ability to identify "what it's about." It's really quite simple. I'm simple. LOL