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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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."





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Wednesday, August 23, 2023

BIG NEWS WHEN YOU ARE EIGHTY-NINE

There is a TV commercial that speaks to me. It shows a young woman and her mother sitting and talking. The young woman makes a recommendation (the point of the commercial) and the mother says, “oh, I will put a note on my phone.” She then picks up her cell phone, on which are a number of little post-it slips, and says “there, I put it right on the top of my phone.” The young woman is aghast, and says “mom…”

 

Because of the tremor that is a minor consequence of my Parkinson’s, I find it very difficult to type things on my iPhone. Yesterday, I discovered that if I tap the microphone symbol at the lower right of the phone, I can dictate to my phone. Who knew? Answer, everyone under the age of 70.

 

Well, I guess, better late than never.

3 comments:

charles Lamana said...

Professor Wolff, I do believe that Robert Paul Wolff in his experience of Parkinson's disease is light years ahead of C.J.L. who is relatively healthy, discounting C.A.D., etc. but this is the only difference I can see. At 75 years of age, I do know and use the voice-activated function on my smartphone. Using these features is somewhat maddening since what I speak into the phone is often not what I believe I said. So given that it can be frustrating. I wonder if it's just me and my inability to clearly articulate the spoken word, or is it a smartphone trying to mirror back to me my level of inarticulateness. At these times I do call the smartphone, stupid. I suspect that you may concur with me on this. Am I wrong?

Robert Paul Wolff said...

It is, alas, not entirely perfect. It understands that Karl Marx is Karl Marx but thinks that Marx is marks. Sometimes it so garbles what I say That I think there are little literary critics in the phone making editorial emendations.

Achim Kriechel (A.K.) said...

I have made the experience: No matter whether you know these things or not... if you look old, no one will buy your competence.