The first of my nine lectures on Kant's First Critique has now drawn 83,458 views. That compares very favorably with the Marvel Studios Avengers official trailer, which was posted three weeks ago and has had 78 million views. It is important in these matters to acknowledge one's limitations. 😔
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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.
Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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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.
7 comments:
Bravo!
Happy New Year.
Hi Paul,
I was wondering if you could humour me. I Just watched your 9 lectures and thoroughly enjoyed them however I am a newcomer to philosophy and I am captivated by Hume and Kant and thought I'd give my own thought experiment a go, I am probably way off on many levels but ah well, here it is:
Given that all causes are the effects of other causes, and all effects when caused become the causes of new effects, then assuming the truth value of the proposition 'all causes are effects", and following logic, does it not follow that we cannot prove that there was a 'necessary first cause' because it would've been a 'necessary first effect' also.
(Example)
When an apple falls from a tree through a cloud of smoke it does so due to gravitational pull, the act of the apple falling is simultaneously an effect of gravity and a cause of smoke displacement. In this case the cause 'gravitational pull of the earth' causes the apple to fall which causes the smoke to move while simultaneously the 'effect' that the earth, apple and smoke had on one another causes the apple to fall and smoke to move. So the apple falling and smoke moving is simultaneously a cause and effect of the act of the apple falling and smoke moving.
Therefore the judgment "all causes are effects" is both true by definition and also universally and necessarily true as all apples falling through all smoke in the same conditions everywhere and at any time would transpire with the same 'causaleffectiveness', which according to Kantian thought makes my original proposition an analytic a priori judgment which challenges Kant's proposition that cause and effect are a synthetic a priori judgment.
**Causaleffectiveness' definitionally operates akin to 'spacetime' - my term denotes the synthesis of cause and effect into the same thing**
The first conclusion, that there can be no first cause, is correct. he second is confused, but as I go out the door to Paris, I do not have time to go over it bit by bit. My apologies.
Thank you for the response.
Thanks for the response!
I suppose that one right conclusion is a good place to start from, and I'll endeavour to become less confused.
Again thanks for the videos, in this age of social media they are truly invaluable! I hope you make more! Enjoy Paris!
I too really loved your Kant lectures. Are there any plans to do a lecture series on part 2 of the critique, or are you planning on any other lecture series?
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