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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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Sunday, May 20, 2018

STRANGE TIMES


This a strange time politically.  It feels oddly unsettled, fractured, uncertain.  The report of a second meeting with Don Jr., this one with representatives of countries other than Russia, gives the feeling of an investigation that is metastasizing.  Recent Democratic Party primaries suggest that at the moment the party is moving to the left, which I welcome, despite the risk it poses in the November elections.  Inasmuch as turnout is everything in the midterms, this may be a conjuncture when the left can make real gains.

Meanwhile, as I prepare for my last Plato class, I am struck again and again by how extraordinary it is that the Gorgias, one of the most topically current of Plato’s dialogues, was written two thousand four hundred years ago.

As soon as the course is ended, I must prepare my Marx lecture for Brussels [or actually Gent – the location has been moved.]  Like Gorgias himself, I will travel to any city state where there are a few gathered to hear me orate.

6 comments:

Howie said...

Professor Wolff:

Another way of putting our present moment in economics talk, which you may dislike, is dynamic disequilibrium.
I'd care to hear, which point in American history, recent world history or world history in general, our age calls to mind, so that the best outcome may come to pass?

Anonymous said...

I've been reading Gore Vidal essays today from the '80s and '90s. I'm not sure these times are much stranger than then. To my mind, Trump is of course a buffoon, but I fear that we won't acknowledge that his most severe lapse is the fact that he embarrasses us more than past Presidents. (All of our Presidents embarrass us, or ought to.) So, is it really such a strange political time?

Matt said...

totally off topic (except perhaps for "strange times", depending on what the answer is) but do you know about either of these books: https://www.librarything.com/work/21408665

https://www.librarything.com/work/21408672

(I use this "library thing" site to keep track of my books, [my library is here, for anyone interested: https://www.librarything.com/profile/MLister ] and happened to notice these "collected papers" volumes of yours, or maybe "yours" - I wondered if perhaps someone was making print on demand versions of your papers that are posted on-line, but can't tell for sure. I suppose there's not necessarily any harm - if it gets one's ideas more widely disseminated, it might even be good, assuming you're not missing out on owed royalties - but still, it's an odd thing, and I wanted to make sure you knew about it. I have no idea where "volume I" is, though.)

Robert Paul Wolff said...

Matt, I did those four volumes some while ago. They are collections, arranged by topic, of my published and unpublished papers.

Matt said...

Thanks - I wasn't sure if someone was "collecting" the works, since I couldn't find anything about them from the site. I'm glad to know they are authorized!

mosaic tile sample book said...

This a strange time politically.