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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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."
3 comments:
Though Arendt is not part of the Frankfurt School, and no one would call her Freudian or Marxist, it is not totally strange to compare her with that group. It's worth noting some similarities. Arendt and the FS had similar aims and a similar relationship to the tradition of philosophy. Both were motivated by the challenge of certain political and cultural developments of the twentieth century, explaining the phenomenon of capitalist and totalitarian oppression, and the question of the role of different types of human thinking in both contributing to that oppression and potentially liberating us from it. Both are deeply influenced by Kant. Both wanted to overcome in their own way the enmity between philosophy and politics. And it's not totally irrelevant that both were German, both felt their thought was antagonistic to the Nazi regime, and both fled Germany in 1933 and sought refuge in New York.
Also, I would like to hear a bit more about your antipathy to Hegel, which seems odd to me (though I only know of this one brief comment of yours on the topic), especially given that the FS was, if not Hegelian, deeply influenced by Hegel. Marx's polemical and hyperbolic critique of Hegel can be deceiving. On one level he is anti-Hegelian and on another Hegelian to the core. So there is a distinction to be made between the methods and politics of Hegel, as there is with any philosopher. This is not news to you, I understand, and everyone has their particular niches and preferences. Remember that Marcuse literally wrote the books on how to read Hegel from the perspective of left revolutionary politics. Maybe you find Marcuse to be too close to Heidegger in this respect? But consider this interesting historical problem: during the same period, 1932-34, that Marcuse fled Germany and Heidegger stayed, they were both heavily involved with Hegel and incorporating Hegel into their political writing. From there, we could say that one turned left and the other turned right. A great representation of the contradictions within Hegel's thought.
In addition, both Arendt and Marcuse studied with Heidegger, and everyone was Jewish.
Certainly they can be fruitfully compared and are both making a comeback in parallel with fascism.
All is forgiven, Bob.
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