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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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Friday, May 29, 2020

A BOFFO ENDING

I have now finished preparing tomorrow's Hume lecture, and I think it has a great finish line.  We shall see.

9 comments:

Jerry Fresia said...

You sent me to the dictionary. Can the term be used outside of the theater or a performance? As in: Trump's was not a boffo presidency - buffoonish, perhaps, but certainly not boffo. I suppose so given that Trump is playing the part of a president.

Robert Paul Wolff said...

But my lectures are performances.

Jerry Fresia said...

Precisely! That is why I added "or a performance" - and so they should be. A great lecturer is also a maéstro (or maéstra, of course).

Christopher J. Mulvaney, Ph.D. said...

I hate to bring it up again, Dr. Wolff, but the best performance was the Bush Beaters/Rabbit Whompers story, an unparalleled digression into anthropology, comedy and social theory. Jerry, if you were to hang out in a Theater Department you would find that everything is a performance.

Charles Pigden said...

Lectures sure are performances. If the thought 'It's showtime!' has never gone through your mind before going in front of a clsss you are probably not very good.

s. wallerstein said...

Her politics aren't Pete Seeger's, but she does seem to sum up the stupidity and charm of a long-gone era, the one and only Ethel Merman singing "There's no business like show business."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIiQMsDQ0Uo

Chandler G said...

If you have the time, I would like to see your Twitter feed kept current with updates and opinions. If you like, I could whip up some graphics for you to use as well.

jgkess@cfl.rr.com said...

C'mon, we all know, by way of Erving Goffman, that each and every social interaction is performative---except, ofcourse, when "Commenting" on Blog Posts.

Mazen said...

Lecture 2 was AWESOME! But I didn't notice the finish line ;).