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A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
My Stuff
https://umass-my.sharepoint.com/:f:/g/personal/rwolff_umass_edu/EkxJV79tnlBDol82i7bXs7gBAUHadkylrmLgWbXv2nYq_A?e=UcbbW0
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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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Philosopher's Stone
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2016
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March
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- BRIEF REPLY
- PRE-DAWN MUSINGS
- MY SECRET VALENTINE
- AND AGAIN, CLINTON AND THE EMAIL/SERVER MESS
- WHITHER BERNIE?
- THE PRIVATE SERVER MATTER
- WHAT IS A LIBERAL?
- WEEKEND WITH BERNIE
- SIGNS FROM HEAVEN
- BTW
- DOWN MEMORY LANE
- FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT HAVE TIME TO READ TWEETS
- GOOD READ
- GIVE ME A BREAK
- REPLY TO A COMMENT
- KATIE BAR THE DOOR
- THE SECRET LIFE OF ROBERT P WOLFF
- GET A GRIP
- GRASPING AT STRAWS
- WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH ...
- VANITAS VANITATUM, OMNIA VANITAS
- OBAMA GOES TO CUBA
- EXPLANATION
- SOMETHING WORTH READING FROM AN UNLIKELY SOURCE
- DELEGATE UPDATE
- A WORD TO THE WISE
- DELEGATE UPDATE
- WEED-WHACKING
- ONE MORE WORD OF EXPLANATION
- MMLX
- A GUEST POST BY MY SON
- A CAUTIONARY THOUGHT
- THE ADVANTAGES OF A GOOD EDUCATION
- WWMS? [WHAT WOULD MARX SAY]
- ALL MY CHILDREN
- MY APOLOGIES
- FAITH IN THINGS UNSEEN
- A COMMENT ON A COMMENT
- ALL DONE
- MORE RESULTS
- A REPLY TO TOM CATHCART
- NUMBER 10
- MORE RESULTS
- AUTHORITARIANISM
- FORECAST
- SHAKESPEARE, KIERKEGAARD, AND DONALD TRUMP
- NUMBER NINE!
- ELECTORAL UPDATE
- STAY TUNED
- SUPER TUESDAY
- NUMBER NINE
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March
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About Me
- Robert Paul Wolff
- As I observed in one of my books, in politics I am an anarchist, in religion I am an atheist, and in economics I am a Marxist. I am also, rather more importantly, a husband, a father, a grandfather, and a violist.
4 comments:
I suppose that's why Republics have the best mixed constitutions: made up of monarchy, democracy and aristocracy. Why become a Triumvirate tyrant illegally when you can be a lawful king (or queen) for four years--and eight years if your lucky!
What an insightful story the one you tell about your first meeting in the African-American studies department!
I suppose that in the philosophy departments they didn't try to create a psychic space for you, because they assumed that you would "naturally feel at home", although at times one is least "at home" where one is supposed to be "naturally at home".
When I first arrived in South America, 40 years ago, I got a lot of often condescending tips about how to make myself at home. I was often left to sink or swim and inevitably sank. I received a certain amount of outrage hostility or covert hostility and although I was too immature to realize it at the time, having listened to your account of your first meeting at the African-American studies department, I now realize that I was greeted in certain spaces with the same consideration and openness to integrate me as you were, generally (as I recall from so many years ago) in spaces where we were going to work together politically, where my ultra-gaucheness had little importance. By the way, I've never been the life of the party, not even in my home town, which by now is as alien to me as any name on the map I've passed through. You can't go home again and sometimes there was never any home to go back to in the first place.
This is at least somewhat off topic, (well, a lot of topic, but maybe not 100%) but I hope you'll indulge it a bit. The other day, while feeling a bit board and not wanting to do work preparing for lectures, I took down Alasdair MacIntyre's book _Against the Self Image of the Age_ and was surprised to see it had a review of your old book on liberalism. (I've read most of MacIntyre's book, but hadn't read this and forgot it was there.) I was even more surprised, and intrigued, when MacIntyre criticized your book for failing to see that liberalism could be ideological or an ideology.
As he says, But [a political] theory and the principles may stand in a quite different relationship. For the theory may provide not an elucidation of the principles, but a mask behind which their true meaning and importance is concealed. The theory may be an ideological instrument, which enables those who profess the principles to deceive not only others but also themselves as to the character of their political action. I have already noticed that Wolff does not allow for the possibility of ideological distortion in his own explanations...
Now, I have a copy of _Against Liberalism_ on my shelf, but I have to admit that I have not read it. I am very curious if you think that MacIntyre just got you wrong in his review, or missed your point, of if you have changed your own views significantly since the time that you wrote that book. Of course, as this is really "off topic", there's no need to devote space to it, though I would be very interested to hear your take.
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