tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post1319200050746479630..comments2024-03-28T01:17:42.336-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: NIGHT THOUGHTSRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger60125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63775277290656118202021-08-24T11:56:58.041-04:002021-08-24T11:56:58.041-04:00Best Merchant Cash Advance Leads are exclusive Le...<a href="https://businessleadsworld.com/" rel="nofollow"> Best Merchant Cash Advance Leads </a> are exclusive Leads addressed to you Merchant Cash Advance Leads is the <a href="https://businessleadsworld.com/" rel="nofollow"> Qualified MCA Leads </a> provider as a firm in the entire globe.Jacob Weberhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16789254916564205967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-74513684025623841752018-12-09T12:33:18.578-05:002018-12-09T12:33:18.578-05:00Welcome to the blog
Welcome to the blog<br />Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-9793864618528640042018-12-08T13:18:53.651-05:002018-12-08T13:18:53.651-05:00I was looking for Richard Wolff and found you. I ...I was looking for Richard Wolff and found you. I find your comments fascinating and will spend more time here. I am wondering your blog is of interest to the younger generation. Thanks.<br />Richard Lorenznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-65815672101677292452018-11-23T10:18:04.656-05:002018-11-23T10:18:04.656-05:00Hello Professor Wolff. I am a longtime lurker on t...Hello Professor Wolff. I am a longtime lurker on the blog. I've learned a great deal from it over the past decade. I'm not necessarily recommending this course of action but you might take a look at atriosl.blogspot.com for one way of handling commenters of the sort you describe. On a more or less daily basis, he includes posts that function as open threads for those within his community of readers looking for an opportunity to communicate with one another rather than to respond to a blogpost. Stefan Sciaraffanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-52107711874736407332018-11-17T22:09:49.084-05:002018-11-17T22:09:49.084-05:00From singapore! :)From singapore! :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-20558413100710899472018-11-17T08:00:36.432-05:002018-11-17T08:00:36.432-05:00Another long-time reader / rare commenter here. Wh...Another long-time reader / rare commenter here. Where else can I get my daily mix of up-to-the-minute political worries, eternal philosophical worries, and the odd anecdote about mid-20th c. Harvard faculty?<br /><br />Keep up the good work, and keep letting your personality shine through.Dannynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-46313274811798226532018-11-17T07:36:37.626-05:002018-11-17T07:36:37.626-05:00I've been a reader for a long while, particula...<br /><br />I've been a reader for a long while, particularly for the philosophy and politics.<br /><br />Of late, I have taken to ignoring the comments.<br /><br /><br />GraemeAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-2010355759937946812018-11-17T06:20:25.511-05:002018-11-17T06:20:25.511-05:00Perhaps I should not comment as I think I probably...Perhaps I should not comment as I think I probably qualify as one of the talkative six, but I greatly value your blog as you are always interesting and often right. But I also enjoy reading the comments of the other regulars such as S Wallerstein and ‘MS’ (the last being notable both for his legal expertise and his political acumen). I actually thought that the previous thread was particularly informative as I asked a question (relating to your original post) and got a really educative series of responses. So keep up the good work and don’t worry too much if some of your regulars bang on at inordinate length. Think of it as a class-room containing a lot of mature students who (like many mature students ) are avid for learning but a bit opinionated and a bit too fond of the sound of their own voices. Tiresome as they can sometimes be they are lot more fun to lecture to than the silent young people who don’t express their opinions because they have no opinions to express. Charles Pigdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131765562671298571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-6908616823578352962018-11-17T05:40:46.967-05:002018-11-17T05:40:46.967-05:00I relate to the blog and the comment section as th...I relate to the blog and the comment section as though it were a classroom. The professor, any professor, is in charge. He or she has authority with regard to the blog itself, obviously, and the comment section. And as in a classroom, I think it behooves each of us, in the comment section, not to "dominate" or respond too much as it shuts other people down and tends to detract from the quality of a blog. If commentators really wish to chat, not an unworthy endeavor, I suppose interested parties could devise a way to put a Philosopher's Stone Chat Room online.<br /><br />Therefore, I think the Professor is correct in making a general statement of concern regarding the comment section slipping into a chatroom. Nothing is more irritating to me when I am teach a painting class than to have one of my students strike up a conversation with another about a given restaurant in town. It is only fair to an instructor that comments be directed to what he or she is saying or doing, with allowances for spontaneity and moderate digression.<br /><br />Finally, I like that I can associate a name with a perspective or set of personal experiences. A rule I would like to see effected properly would be to have the "Anonymi" use a pseudonym, even if that pseudonymization is an acronym or number or symbol or avatar or whatever as long as participants in this blog can individuate commentators. Maybe the Anonymi can choose numbers as Anonymi 3.Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-32670709232048039042018-11-17T02:52:38.792-05:002018-11-17T02:52:38.792-05:00Dear Prof. Wolf,
I've never commented before,...Dear Prof. Wolf,<br /><br />I've never commented before, but I'm a regular reader of your blog. In fact, it is the only blog that I regularly read nowadays. I read it for a variety of reasons, but mostly I enjoy your perspective. It is erudite and learned, without a hint of superiority or snobbishness. <br /><br />—One of your international readersAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-51219941787698689592018-11-17T02:00:41.567-05:002018-11-17T02:00:41.567-05:00I'm a regular reader, and I've commented b...I'm a regular reader, and I've commented before, but rarely. I'm mostly interested in the philosophy and related posts, though I might have actually commented on the political posts in the past. <br /><br />In recent months I've simply been skipping the comments entirely. <br /><br />I didn't read any of the comments before responding to this post . . .mesnenorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10813095598060277786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-85012954069475429742018-11-16T23:26:02.747-05:002018-11-16T23:26:02.747-05:00RPW -- a retired academic (intellectual history an...RPW -- a retired academic (intellectual history and history of science), I have long been a fan of yours, having read many of your books (and taught some), having attended a number of your public talks, and having followed your blog regularly for the past several years. Let me add my voice to the chorus of those who value and appreciate your willingness to continue these exchanges. The Enlightenment was always about two ideals -- moral courage and clear thinking (perhaps best epitomized in Kant's "sapere aude") -- ideals in seemingly short supply these days. Your blog provides one of the beacons for these ideals. As the sixties' vestigial expression has it, "keep on truckin'." MICHAEL HOBARTnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-56151361862287757662018-11-16T22:36:32.983-05:002018-11-16T22:36:32.983-05:00I think the nub of this post is a bit odd.
The b...I think the nub of this post is a bit odd. <br /><br />The blogger, in this case Prof. Wolff, is in charge of the comments section of his blog. It is functionally in this respect a dictatorship. If the blogger feels that certain persons are commenting too frequently or at too great length, he should ask them politely to cut back, and he can do that, if he wants, right in the comments section itself. If they persistently ignore the requests, he should feel free to start deleting comments.<br /><br />Personally I don't mind too much a 55-comment thread that rambles around, and I sometimes -- not always -- find MS, SW, et al. quite interesting. (I was also rather flattered that MS took the time to read a post that I wrote elsewhere, and had linked to, on the PBS Vietnam documentary.) I don't read every single word of every single comment, for sure.<br /><br />But for me the comments sections have generally been a fun and sometimes illuminating aspect of this blog, as they often are in other blogs as well. Whenever Wolff feels that I (or anyone else) have written something too off-topic or tangential or irrelevant or rambling or whatever, he should just tell me (or anyone else) that, right in the comments section.<br /><br />Last note: I would sort of like to see Wolff engage in posts with some recent books on topics he is interested in and knowledgeable on -- say Marx (to just pick one at semi-random). I think I'd find that kind of post more interesting than the reflections on Trump and U.S. politics. Others' opinions on this may differ. But again, a solo blogger is an absolute dictator. He writes about whatever he wants, however he wants, whenever he wants, and he controls the comments section. LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-48849726402410169062018-11-16T21:32:41.432-05:002018-11-16T21:32:41.432-05:00I too am a regular lurker who on rare occasion int...I too am a regular lurker who on rare occasion interjects a brief comment. Having read your "Defense of Anarchism" 40 yrs and greatly enjoyed it I sought you out through and google search and came upon your blog. That was 6 yrs ago and haven't regretted. You have a gift for clarity of thought and economy of word.Paul Kernnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36912820899923473482018-11-16T20:44:22.943-05:002018-11-16T20:44:22.943-05:00Professor Wolff,
I am a regular reader of your bl...Professor Wolff,<br /><br />I am a regular reader of your blog and enjoy your writings immensely, I use a service called Blogtrottr.com to receive emails of your posts every time you post, so I just see the text and not the comments. Unfortunately, I know myself better than to get involved in the comment section, as I would want to give a reply with full details and nuance and that would be my evening gone. As a 20-something, full-time employed, single and living in Oxford, there are so many other things going on here that I should be getting involved in!<br /><br />Since you have called for comments, I would love to take this opportunity to let you know that it was with huge pleasure that I discovered your blog and your online lecture series about 18 months ago. I can't remember how I came across it now but I'll always remember how I first learned about you. I was 17 and studying A-Level "Government an Politics" and in one particularly dull afternoon class (we had to spend weeks learning about the exact process of British Parliamentary politics, and then how the EU works, and then how political parties work.......) <br /><br />Anyway in this class, my teacher, who would never reveal his political leanings to us but always seemed like he might once have been a firebrand socialist but all the fire had gone out in him and now hew went through the motions seeing out his days in a secondary school in a neoliberal world, cynically laughing as we asked if he fancied going on strike so we could have an afternoon off. On this dull afternoon he could see I was really bored and not engaging with the learning at all so he gave me this slim book, in stark red and white, with the word Anarchism emblazoned across it and told me to shut up and read that. I finished In Defense of Anarchism that evening and it had a really profound impact on my thought. It was written in simple English and had a clear logical structure. Really an incredible clarity of logic that won me over immediately. I couldn't pick any holes in it, you hadn't made any generalisations or concealed leaps of faith to get to your conclusion that individual liberty and freedom has just as big a problem with democratic politics as any other form of rule, so I had to accept it, and I did. <br /><br />I think In Defence... (and I still have that copy) influenced my political thought more than anything until I discovered Foucault at university. It gave me this concrete foundation that was something like "utopia is un-achievable, dogma just can't get you what you want, so my political thought has to be nuanced and pragmatic. My political aims have to be rooted in trying to make the world just a bit more just. Democratic politics is compromise and what's important for liberty is all the elements around elections that make up a pluralistic and open political system."<br /><br />Although my other A-Level subjects were sciences and maths, I ended up going to university to study politics (you chose your course before matriculating in Britain) and after some years teaching English in China I'm now a lowish ranking civil servant.<br /><br />I don't know if you've noticed but we've got something of a national project going on in Britain at the moment to "respect democracy" even if it means making us much much poorer, more divided, less influential etc etc.... The Brexit referendum and its result often makes me think of In Defense... and makes me wish more people understood the message that its simple logic is trying to deliver.<br /><br />As you can see, this is why I don't let myself get started on a comment! I will end by saying that I absolutely love your lecture series and even as a politics graduate have learned so much about Marx, ideological critique and Freud from you (I wish there were more lectures on Freud!). I listened to your Marx lectures as I went door to door delivering leaflets for my local Labour party for a local council election earlier this year (and we won that seat!)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06459163807109731285noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-44423292537443071112018-11-16T20:27:51.572-05:002018-11-16T20:27:51.572-05:00I regularly read the blog, but rarely post a comme...I regularly read the blog, but rarely post a comment as I generally don't have anything intelligent to contribute.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-86404886295268300302018-11-16T20:05:33.674-05:002018-11-16T20:05:33.674-05:00I'm a fairly new reader of your blog. I find i...I'm a fairly new reader of your blog. I find it stimulating and delightful, and I'd be very disappoionted if you stopped doing it. <br /><br />Looking around in your archives recently, I came across your "Credo," and I thought it was brilliant and beautiful. <br /><br />I've never read the commments. If, as you say, many of those who comment here are carrying on a conversation that has nothing to do with your blog, I don't see why it would be a problem to suggest that they, so to speak, get a room. They could start a Google group or something. (And if they didn't take you up on the suggestion, I don't see why it would be a problem to delete comments that strike you as off-topic. That's what moderators do.)<br /><br />BrianAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8573293265363904702018-11-16T19:56:22.718-05:002018-11-16T19:56:22.718-05:00Like many people who are discouraged by daily news...Like many people who are discouraged by daily news and the state of journalism, I seek out blogs like yours that summarize both the news and the reactions. They are short and simple to read without pop-up advertisements and interruptions. <br /><br />I also like your practice of moving some important comments as part of your main blog. Thanks.<br /><br />I also use public WiFi to post sometimes, hence the choice of posting as anon. <br /><br />-- Best wishes, <br /><br />YAAU<br /><br />(yet another anon user)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-23550092539804217722018-11-16T19:04:48.583-05:002018-11-16T19:04:48.583-05:00'I do not want to start deleting serious, inte...'I do not want to start deleting serious, intelligent comments..'<br /><br />What a problem to complain about. <br />Dannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11915977609430813824noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-53086331467754551442018-11-16T17:33:37.179-05:002018-11-16T17:33:37.179-05:00Prof Wolff,
I am a regular reader of your blog. I...Prof Wolff,<br /><br />I am a regular reader of your blog. I rarely comment, but I do seriously reflect on the things you talk about here. I don't keep up with the news as well as you do, and I sometimes I find out about important recent events by reading your blog. It's hard to get the news from a newspaper when the "front page story" (on their website) changes multiple times per day. I would like to comment more often, but most of the time I would feel like I was participating in a seminar without doing the reading.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-24826699972247565512018-11-16T17:14:31.359-05:002018-11-16T17:14:31.359-05:00Dear Prof Wolff,
Having been pointed to your blog...Dear Prof Wolff,<br /><br />Having been pointed to your blog by one of Brian Leiter’s posts many years ago (while doing my PhD in Philosophy in the UK), I have read - I believe - every one of your posts in the 8 or so years since, through academic degrees, international moves, 2 children, a divorce, various life joys and stresses, etc.<br /><br />I also used to keep up with a number of other blogs (Leiter’s and others in Philosophy, various sources related to my current topic, Cognitive Neuroscience, etc.), but have slowly but steadily weeded them out, down to two sole remaining survivors - including yours (the other is Cal Newport’s take on knowledge work at ”Study Hacks”). Why do I keep reading these two, when several dozen have been purged already? Because they both give me joy, and are neither too frequent or too infrequent in their posts, nor too obviously polished by some over-zealous marketing guru with something to sell (Cal sells books and similar, but still strikes me as authentic).<br /><br />I sincerely appreciate your perspective. And although it may be somewhat sacrilege to even mention it, I dare say that although we have never come close to meeting in real life, nor have I ever engaged you in discussion here in the comments or elsewhere (this is, in fact, the first comment I have ever posted at your blog), I must profess to occasionally having started to worry a little about your health and wellbeing whenever you have taken a longer than usual hiatus from posting. Purely selfish reasons: your updates are quite frequently simply pleasant pings in my working day, and many of your stories have stayed with me (I particularly enjoyed your story about your - was it? - granddaughter, and her experience with the challenging math teacher in Hungary, or your parable about health and education in the imagined country where they do everything backwards, whatever it was called...). At times, reading your blog posts reminds me a little of the NPR show The Moth.<br /><br />I intended to not be too verbose, but seems I failed at that. In any case, here’s the moral: I suspect I am not alone in enjoying listening to what you have to say, even if I have never before engaged you back again, thru comments or otherwise. <br /><br />In any case, I never see any of the comments, as I have set up a function that emails me your posts (without comments) as soon as you post them. This has been the only way I have engaged with your blog since years back, and what I intend to do also in the future. In other words, I guess I won’t see any potential responses to this comment either. :-)<br /><br />Oh well. Keep up the good work. There are many of us listening!Oskarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-30447869186415088202018-11-16T17:11:11.975-05:002018-11-16T17:11:11.975-05:00Count me in as a regular reader who never posts.Count me in as a regular reader who never posts.Stephen Hemingwaynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-45271601852493423242018-11-16T16:16:28.176-05:002018-11-16T16:16:28.176-05:00Professor Wolff:
I am a long-time and regular rea...Professor Wolff:<br /><br />I am a long-time and regular reader of the blog and especially appreciate having the archives. Reading your take on the current political environment and on the relation between such ephermeral events and the broader philosophical background is one of my great pleasures, up there with browsing WV Quine's delightful book Quiddities. I miss your musical musings lately. I have commented in the past but not so much lately; it gets weedy out there. Best wishes.C. Rossihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07052761435938207540noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-76992696108399635862018-11-16T15:49:52.947-05:002018-11-16T15:49:52.947-05:00I’ve been a regular reader of yours for the last e...I’ve been a regular reader of yours for the last eight years or so. I tend not to read the comments, much less contribute to them, but I’m happy to say “hi” here in response to the call.Wolfenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-43262009456295198952018-11-16T15:35:55.677-05:002018-11-16T15:35:55.677-05:00I have been reading this website pretty much since...I have been reading this website pretty much since its inception. I have read RPW’s books on Kant and, of course, the Anarchism book. That’s how I recognized the name and starting reading the website way back when. I don’t get much exercised by politics (I’m an inveterately left-of-center Democrat, and let it go at that). The things I’ve liked best about this website are the philosophical parts of it—especially the memoirs about academic philosophy in the US down until about 1970. I’ve long had an interest in C.I. Lewis, and I think his marginalization in contemporary US philosophy is a mistake and something close to an injustice. If I remember correctly, RPW said a few years back that he thought that Mind and the World Order was one of the two works by American philosophers that deserve to be called a classic. But the other one wasn’t identified. I have long been curious about the demographics of the readership of this website. I think it’s too bad that professional philosophers (and other academics) don’t throw their two-cents in more often in the comments section. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com