tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post600318864061848301..comments2024-03-28T12:50:25.792-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: SMALL PLEASURESRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-62976627627365050832015-05-25T21:53:15.281-04:002015-05-25T21:53:15.281-04:00I'm just 600 pages into Jonathan Israel's ...I'm just 600 pages into Jonathan Israel's "Democratic Enlightenment" (it took him 440 pp to get to the American Revolution). Almost gave it up when I found he had no bibliography entry for "Hume, David"*. But he's now getting into the influence of Spinoza on Rousseau, so I plow on.<br /><br /><br />*although he discussed Hume's worklevinebarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11436714033924525689noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-24921860848537596252015-05-25T11:28:23.256-04:002015-05-25T11:28:23.256-04:00Thanks Magpie; interesting about the Biennale but ...Thanks Magpie; interesting about the Biennale but the best thing I think artists could do would be to organize a boycott.Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46217962118192032582015-05-24T20:52:24.448-04:002015-05-24T20:52:24.448-04:00Prof. Wolff and fellow readers,
A very enjoyable ...Prof. Wolff and fellow readers,<br /><br />A very enjoyable read:<br /><br />"Das Kapital at the Arsenale: how Okwui Enwezor invited Marx to the Biennale" by Charlotte Higgins<br />Friday 8 May 2015<br />http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/may/07/das-kapital-at-venice-biennale-okwui-enwezor-karl-marx<br /><br />The author is a genius of subtle irony.Magpiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-41677479953361119152015-05-23T22:59:10.363-04:002015-05-23T22:59:10.363-04:00'Like Hume, Marx was fond of referring not onl...'Like Hume, Marx was fond of referring not only to Lucretius but also to the later satirist (and Epicurean) Lucian (c. 120–c. 180) and his Dialogues of the Gods, in which, according to Marx, the gods died a second death due to comedy. And just as Hume had turned to Lucretius and Lucian on his deathbed, Marx’s response to death, as recounted by Engels, was to quote Epicurus: “Death is not a misfortune for him who dies, but for him who survives.”'<br /><br />http://monthlyreview.org/2008/10/01/marxs-critique-of-heaven-and-critique-of-earth/classtrugglehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17537776267404584351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-51936834316406873972015-05-23T08:02:26.602-04:002015-05-23T08:02:26.602-04:00I checked Wikipedia. Bach had two wives, and twen...I checked Wikipedia. Bach had two wives, and twenty children, not twenty-two, only ten of whom survived to adulthood [!!]. His second wife was Anna Magdelena, who is imortalize in some of his compositions. But all in all, a good family man as well as a transcendent composer.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-54955414740510662462015-05-23T07:19:12.897-04:002015-05-23T07:19:12.897-04:00"Well, he fathered twenty-two children, so I ..."Well, he fathered twenty-two children, so I think we can say he was a family man."<br /><br />Poor Mrs. Bach... (assuming all those children were with Mrs. Bach)Magpiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07528637318288802178noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-13027904520166853122015-05-23T04:59:30.750-04:002015-05-23T04:59:30.750-04:00Speaking of Bach, chamber music, and such, a discu...Speaking of Bach, chamber music, and such, a discussion of same graces a left political news site today:<br /><br />http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/05/22/chiaroscuro-comes-to-america/Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-66743497039246616292015-05-22T14:33:07.138-04:002015-05-22T14:33:07.138-04:00Well, he fathered twenty-two children, so I think ...Well, he fathered twenty-two children, so I think we can say he was a family man. What little I know suggests that he was a good stolid burgher who just happened to be the greatgest composer who ever lived. Mozart was a nutcase, of course, and Beethoven was weird, and I believe Garibaldo caught his wife in bed with another man and killed them both. His musikc shows some signs of that.<br /><br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-15075238375436766592015-05-22T14:19:23.718-04:002015-05-22T14:19:23.718-04:00It is very rare for someone to have extreme merit ...It is very rare for someone to have extreme merit along so many dimensions of the human personality. Russell, whose intellectual work I estimate higher than is currently fashionable, had some rather well-known personal flaws. Gödel, as toweringingly smart and insightful as he was, had his well-known flaws. And Frege, oy! And Newton and so on. And, while no one is a saint, Hume does sort of stand above. And he wrote so damn well. What do we know about Bach?David Auerbachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15612242467208247588noreply@blogger.com