tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post4642667910318555656..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: SUNDAY MORNING MUSINGSRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-50537616622272032462016-06-22T05:21:42.775-04:002016-06-22T05:21:42.775-04:00I am well aware that I have led a charmed life. I...I am well aware that I have led a charmed life. I do not apologize for that. I simply think that it imposes on me a continuing obligation to find ways out of solidarity to try to assist those less fortunate. I certainly do not imagine that I have in some way earned the comfort I enjoy.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-38853503552504665002016-06-22T05:14:35.628-04:002016-06-22T05:14:35.628-04:00A precarious employee cannot enjoy such a luxury a...A precarious employee cannot enjoy such a luxury as this: "the file drawers in which I keep materials, in chronological order, from every course, tutorial, section, and discussion group I have taught over the past sixty-one years."formerly a wage slavehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16064562730082906589noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-16317511919834380752016-06-20T15:00:36.530-04:002016-06-20T15:00:36.530-04:00That is a great quote from Jerry. I suspect he is...That is a great quote from Jerry. I suspect he is right. If the Prolegomena are any indication, kant was awful at explaining his own greatest philosophy.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-84407492128633506152016-06-20T14:21:26.963-04:002016-06-20T14:21:26.963-04:00but maybe wait for the lectures. I hope they will ...<i> but maybe wait for the lectures. I hope they will help.</i><br /><br />That's the thing with good lectures(*) - they can turn texts that are mystifying or otherwise hard to penetrate into accessible things. (Or, they can show that seemingly transparent texts are more complicated than we might at first think.) I'm sure these will be a benefit for people for a long time.<br /><br />(*) I'll admit that I really liked the bit in J.B. Schneewind's introduction to Kant's lectures on ethics, when he said "Anyone who has studied or taught Kant's _Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals_ must have wondered how even Kant could make such difficult thoughts clear to beginners (which his students usually were). The third set of lecture notes suggests one answer - a not very encouraging one. ... We present excerpts [of lectures when Kant was presenting ideas from the groundwork] showing how Kant explained his main theses to students for the first time. We have, of course, no record of how much Mronovius and other students understood what Kant said. It seems fairly clear, however, that Kant taught his ethics no better than we do."...Matthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01446428606119200980noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-29651479330759605772016-06-19T19:19:36.061-04:002016-06-19T19:19:36.061-04:00It wouldn't hurt to read my book with it, but ...It wouldn't hurt to read my book with it, but maybe wait for the lectures. I hope they will help.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-61254536105052551372016-06-19T19:15:23.797-04:002016-06-19T19:15:23.797-04:00How should the first-time, non-professional reade...How should the first-time, non-professional reader of the Critique proceed? <br /><br />Should they skip over paragraphs or sections that they can make no sense of and thus, make their way through the whole book and get a general, albeit not precise, idea of what it is about? Or should they stick with paragraphs or sections that they can make no sense of and run the obvious risk, time being limited, of not finishing the book?<br /><br />My previously used method with difficult philosophical texts, for example, Spinoza's Ethics or Sartre's Being and Nothingness, is to skip stuff that I don't understand, but maybe that won't work for Kant's Critique. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.com