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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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, November 14, 2016

SOPHISTRY

I am beside myself so, having no other options, I joined the North Carolina branch of the NAACP.  This minimal act of desperation put me in mind of a lovely passage from the Preface to Kierkegaard’s exquisite short work, Philosophical Fragments:

“When Philip threatened to lay siege to the city of Corinth, and all its inhabitants hastily bestirred themselves in defense, some polishing weapons, some gathering stones, some repairing the walls, Diogenes seeing all this hurriedly folded his mantle about him and began to roll his tub zealously back and forth through the streets.  When he was asked why he did this he replied that he wished to be busy like the rest, and rolled his tub lest be the only idler among so many industrious citizens.”

Kierkegaard comments, “Such conduct is at any rate not sophistical, if Aristotle be right in describing sophistry as the art of making money.”


Each of us must do what he or she can do in these terrible times.

2 comments:

RedRosa said...

I was wondering if you or anybody here could recommend good socialist organizations to support. I have signed up for monthly contributions to the ACLU and will do so with some other organization, but would also like to support (financially and via volunteering) socialist education/outreach to help "swing the hammer to the left". Thank you!

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