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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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Saturday, June 17, 2017

SEE YOU IN A BIT

I have been blogging for just short of eight years.  In that time, I have written on line a quarter million word autobiography, another quarter million words of extended essays, and uncounted numbers of words of commentary on the passing scene.  I am now eighty-three years old, and I am tired, written out for the moment.  I am also just now managing a move from a condominium apartment to a continuing care retirement community.  I have decided therefore to take a break from blogging for a week or two.  We move on June 28th, and go to Paris for a two-week break on July 12th.  Unless something titanic of a political sort happens in the interim, I shall return to blogging at some time between the 28th and the 12th.  The world will get along quite nicely without me, I imagine.

23 comments:

TheDudeDiogenes said...

Enjoy your break, Prof, and safe travels!

Charles Pigden said...

The world may be able to get along without you but what about your fans?

LFC said...

When I was blogging, I took breaks with some frequency. This break that you are taking is completely understandable.

June 28th, 1914, was, I believe, the date of the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in Sarajevo. I trust your move will be unaffected by that fact. ;)

Matt said...

Have a good break, and enjoy Paris. We'll look forward to having you back.

chrismealy said...

I'm sure you'll have something to say in the next couple of weeks! If not, your loyal readers will be waiting.

Jerry Fresia said...

Yes, indeed, enjoy a well earned break.

Let me add, selfishly however: BUMMER!

Tom Cathcart said...

Good luck with the move! We'll miss you.

F Lengyel said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
s. wallerstein said...

I'll miss your blogging as well as the interchange of comments that it stimulates.

I hope that the move goes smoothly.

Jerry Brown said...

I am slow sometimes but the reason Trump required his cabinet to spout such nonsensical praise has become apparent to me because of your announcement here. After stating how blessed I was to serve as your reader, my fortunes are tied to yours and my credibility elsewhere as a commenter is shot. You taking a break has doomed me. Hopefully, you will return soon in which case the praise will be redoubled. If not, I will have to pretend it was some other Jerry Brown who wrote that. You know, I think it was that guy in California now that I consider it...

Best of luck and come back soon- that guy in the governor's office is going to need you now :)

Unknown said...

Enjoy your break, and enjoy Paris! We'll miss you and look forward to your return.

Dick Moran

Tomasz J,. Popielicki, Warsaw, Poland said...

"See you in a bit"
Please, Professor, make that 'bit' as little as possible, please.
With kind regards,
Tomasz J Popielicki
Warsaw
Poland

Unknown said...

Enjoy the well-earned break, and enjoy Paris. But come back soon!

Tomasz J,. Popielicki, Warsaw, Poland said...

Please, Professor, accept my best regards and wishes for the future.
Also, please note:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/little-library-cafe/2017/jun/23/novel-recipes-rock-cakes-from-harry-potter-and-the-philosophers-stone
With a Japanese bow,
Yours faithfully
Tomasz J Popielicki
warsaw
Poland

Unknown said...

Eureka! Found your lectures on Kant. Excellent! I look forward to your return from France.
Stay well.

Regards, Michael Taylor

Michael Llenos said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Llenos said...

Tired out while writing my last post, I did not correctly state a sentence or two with what I truly meant. Until now...
On the Idea of Removing President Trump. I conceive every democrat (and most liberals) are so mad bent on removing President Trump that I get the impression they are more unanimous about getting rid of him than unanimous about what to do once he is out of office. St. Thomas Aquinas relates a story--in his On Kingship, that I shall modify a little--about an elderly woman who was praying for the long reign of a tyrant ruling in Sicily. Some visitors to the island asked her why on earth was she praying for a ruler that most (if not everyone) wanted to be rid of office? She responded that when she was a child she prayed for the removal of a then ruling tyrant that nobody in Sicily liked. When he was murdered a more wicked ruler of men soon took his place. Then as an adult she wished and prayed for his removal for many years. He eventually was taken out and the present tyrant--that came to power soon afterwards--was the most evil ruler of them all. So she said that she prayed to God that this last tyrant would have a long reign so that her children and grandchildren might not live under any worse circumstances by a more wicked ruler in the future. Now what happened in another country could also happen to us here in the United States, or in any other country for that matter. Ousting Caesar produced Antony; getting rid of Saddam produced Isis. When the Homestead Strike occurred in the year 1892, the union laborers got a tyrant instead of the lenient Mr. Carnegie who was vacationing in Scotland at the time. Some more savvy historians may counter this argument of mine by saying: 'Does that mean the U.S. and Russia were not right to have gotten the Germans out of power in the 1940s?' No. What Russia and the U.S. did to the Nazis in WW2, by taking them out of power, was a good thing. Now it is not my place to judge any fellow American who wants to see President Trump out of office or not. That is their freedom of opinion. But nobody, it seems to me, is unified in great numbers about what to do if President Trump is ever taken abruptly out of office. And that scares me.

Unknown said...

Well, we do know who would take Trump's place if he were impeached or resigned--Mike Pence. Pence would be just as bad as Trump on domestic issues (taxes, health care etc.) In fact, because he's not an ignorant fool like Trump, he could be even worse because more efficient. But he isn't a reckless idiot who is likely to wake someday at 3 a.m. and decide to start a nuclear war. The thought of Trump with the authority to launch nuclear weapons is terrifying. I'd take Pence any day--or the guy would would come after him, Paul Ryan--ahead of Trump.

Jerry Fresia said...

David Palmeter,

That's where I come down too. It's the nuclear issue. We could possibly survive Pence or the next neo-lib-endless-war Dem; but Trump might just pull the plug.

Jerry Brown said...

Its only been nine days or so since your last post but I am very much missing your commentary already. I hope you return soon. In the meantime, if you will not be posting frequently, could you find it in your heart to take down your second to last post? I am sure the message was received already and it is no doubt painful to have it displayed on the front page of your blog for weeks.

Michael Llenos said...

Dr. Wolff,

I just wanted to say thank you for not deleting any of my posts of the past. Although I'm liberal bent, I have a strong taste for monotheism. I have previously posted before in favor of the ontological argument and all logical proofs about God. The following is another proof about God in my quest to try to figure out the truth about the reality concerning the deity.

Intro. I have invented the following 6-point proof of God, over four hours, last night, the 1st of July, in the form of a paradox. I heavily edited it this morning.

1. Either God created the universe (God being the First Cause of the universe), or the universe and time are eternal and have always existed.

2. But if the universe and time are eternal, everything that could have been created, has been created, since the past is infinite in length. However, then the creator, or God, must also have been created (or self-created) into reality already, concerning his real and omnipotent form, since all things had to have been created.

3. So an all-powerful God must exist, in reality, since his real and omnipotent form takes up a specific part of reality in the general category of all created and real things.

4. However, if someone would say that all things were created into reality except for God, then all things were not totally created, since the idea of God was created but the reality of God was not created. Though all things were created except for God, all things must have existed in an infinite past. Therefore an uncreated eternal God must exist if time and the universe are eternal. This is the only other alternative for God.

5. But if God was not created into reality, then God must have always existed in the universe as a part of reality. For either all things were created (in an infinite past) or all things were created except for a preexisting God. If the latter is true, then time could not be eternal. However, all things could have been created, even if time is not eternal, through the agency of Plato's Forms. Plato's Forms are the perfect forms of everything that exists. Everything else is a mere copy and is of lesser quality.

6. And this God that is part of all things must necessarily be the creator: especially since a future creation of an all-powerful God (no matter when in the universe's timeline) makes no logical sense. God must be a real being for all past, present and future time. Therefore, God must exist now and always. And the highest Platonic Form is God. So if God was created (or possibly self-created) then he must really have preexisted time and the universe. Therefore time and the universe were created by the First Cause.

Michael Llenos said...

Ten Great Works of Philosophy p. 116

[I believe the 4th out of 5 proofs of God, by Thomas Aquinas, are Plato's Forms rewritten in an Aristolian format.]

1. We know that God is the ultimate good if he exists.

2. There are many things we can observe their particulars in the universe but not their root or main causes. The latter are the Platonic Forms written by Plato in his Republic and Phaedo.

3. E.g. there are many things beautiful in particular, but we do not see their root or main cause in the universe. A lamp and star gives off energy but we have never seen pure or ultimate energy.

4. But if all of these particulars are the effects of causes, then their causes must exist as well. So if we see any good in the world, its cause is ultimate goodness, which is God. Therefore God exists.

Does anyone see the connection I am making with Aquinas' 4th proof and Plato's Forms?

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