I am curious about my readership. This business of blogging is very hard for me, because I cannot see you, see how you respond, hear you as you comment. It is all really odd.
So here is my pop quiz. In my last post, I confessed that I am envious of Rawls' fame. Is there anyone among my readers who understands that this confession [not the envy, the confession of it] is an expression of my arrogance?
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A Commentary on the Passing Scene by Robert Paul Wolff rwolff@afroam.umass.edu
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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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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.
13 comments:
I did not understand your confession as an expression of arrogance. I thought it was an attempt at humor and found it humorous. Wouldn't be the first time I misunderstood something though. As for commenting, I have also found some of my comments are misunderstood, not so much here I hope. It is my fault, I have decided, when something I write is perceived in a completely different manner than I intended. Maybe that is an expression of my own arrogance :). In any event, you are very good at this blogging business in general, although if you wished to convey the idea that your admitting an envy of Rawls was an attempt to express arrogance, well that went right over my head.
I took the admission to be self-deprecating humor. As were my comments. It's not as if the only proper response to Rawls is awe and reverence. Unless that follows from his theory of justice...
Perhaps it follows from Rawls's theory that his remuneration and reputation (one of the currencies of academia) must exceed that of any other political philosopher, since they all benefit from his theory of justice, and so they must approve of Rawls's higher paycheck and reputation out of self interest. It is the height of arrogance, therefore, to think one might enjoy anything like Rawls's reputation. I'm at a loss otherwise how to make this a plausible answer to a pop quiz...
I should be more careful, since a distinction was made between the internal experience of envy (which may be involuntary and outside the moral sphere) and the expression of envy, which is a behavior subject to moral judgment. Ok, the open admission of envy then expresses disagreement with the pareto optimal distribution of income and reputation that obtains when Rawls himself is compensated enough to want to work as a political philosopher on the theory of justice, instead of working as a dock worker. By his own theory, since Rawls is aiming at the highest good (if we believe Plato or Aristotle) and the improvement of all citizens of society (if we believe Socrates), everyone, not only political philosophers, must agree out of self interest to the higher compensation (in income and reputation) that Rawls receives. Expressing envy of Rawls's reputation expresses disagreement with the distribution compatible with justice. This goes against self interest and can fairly be called outrageous and arrogant.
B- I guess. OK a gentleman's C. (This is my last edit.)
Sure, I understand that.
Is it arrogance or a justified sense of self esteem?
"The confession of it," to me, is yet another example of your astonishing openness. The ease with which you make yourself vulnerable is the mark of an unusual degree of mental health.
Oh Bob, your arrogance squeals like nails on a chalkboard between and within the lines of almost everything you write on this blog. But we think you are great anyway.
Kyla
Well, there is the interesting category now called the humblebrag.
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