tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post320537172809024338..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A MARVELOUS LINKRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-58832796724894211112022-08-18T07:09:02.885-04:002022-08-18T07:09:02.885-04:00This article is quite interesting and I am looking...This article is quite interesting and I am looking forward to reading more of your posts. Thanks for sharing this article with us.<br /><a href="https://assignmenthelps.co.uk/finance-dissertation-help.php" rel="nofollow">Finance Dissertation Help UK</a>Rebecca Virginiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07912291369974722943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-91916223377539557272022-08-03T22:46:54.799-04:002022-08-03T22:46:54.799-04:00Whoops, wrong thread, pardon!Whoops, wrong thread, pardon!RisiculousIcculusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-40758270017746326012022-08-03T22:44:57.202-04:002022-08-03T22:44:57.202-04:00But does voting in presidential elections actually...But does voting in presidential elections actually matter? See, e.g., Mike Huemer from Colorado here: https://fakenous.substack.com/p/voting-civic-duty-or-immoral-waste-of-time.RidiculousIcculusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-68123091468096690022022-08-02T00:54:41.975-04:002022-08-02T00:54:41.975-04:00Finally, it becomes very tight when the "phil...Finally, it becomes very tight when the "philosopher-anti-kings" appear and are supposed to explain to the masses where tolerance is allowed to turn and where not. I don't know exactly what meaning the term "subversive elite" has in the USA, here where I live, in Germany, there were people at the end of the 70s who felt called to this throne and who put an end to what they called "false tolerance". They were called the Baader-Meinhof Group or RAF (Red Army Faction). <br /><br />It is perhaps too little and perhaps even for all time too little, but it could be that the truth in a "truthful consciousness" is like milk, which one must tread every morning, so long until it has become butter. I mean, not even Kant could indicate where "the moral law in me" should come from.<br /><br />I remember that Hannah Arendt in an interview rejected the term political philosopher as a designation of her profession. She said succinctly that this had always gone wrong since Plato. Achim Kriechel (A.K.)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-45884449509712077872022-08-01T20:16:54.079-04:002022-08-01T20:16:54.079-04:00aaall
I don't have time or inclination right n...aaall<br />I don't have time or inclination right now to continue our historical conversation/argument. We'll agree to disagree.LFChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551197682770555147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-69687930178889810382022-08-01T18:43:05.384-04:002022-08-01T18:43:05.384-04:00Hello Professor Wolff, I am enjoying immensely you...Hello Professor Wolff, I am enjoying immensely your lectures on Ideological Critique. I will be reading In Defence of Anarchism. Also with Adam Smith's An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. I think that all should make for quite a good system. <br /><br />-Giovanni TamburinoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36620335287757768422022-08-01T16:45:01.636-04:002022-08-01T16:45:01.636-04:00aaall,
"How is this different then what DeSa...aaall,<br /><br />"How is this different then what DeSantis is doing in Florida? I often see arguments like the above on far right sites."<br /><br />Since we never agree about anything, I wanted to note that here I agree with you.<br />s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-38814854076980348672022-08-01T16:40:13.515-04:002022-08-01T16:40:13.515-04:00"Moreover, the restoration of freedom of thou..."Moreover, the restoration of freedom of thought may necessitate new and rigid restrictions on teaching and practices in the educational institutions which, by their very methods and concepts, serve to enclose the mind within the established universe of discourse and behavior--thereby precluding a priori a rational evaluation of the alternatives" (p 45)."<br /><br />How is this different then what DeSantis is doing in Florida? I often see arguments like the above on far right sites.<br /><br />Anon, I was referencing China as your take from the lecture seemed to be either conqueror or abandon overseas adventures. Apologies if that wasn't clear. Back in the day there were investigations by the Portuguese and Spanish Courts on how the early expeditions behaved and they were often scathing ("we're all going to hell," etc. Las Casas is an example in the New World).<br /><br />China traded all the way to India and Africa. They has advanced metallurgy. They could have been contenders. Instead they got a century of humiliation.<br /><br />LFC, I'm sure the nation that made Guatemala safe for United Fruit and helped make Iran safe for UK oil interests could find a way to deal with a Chinese warlord. <br /><br />As I recall Taiwan had ceded to Japan by treaty. A little foresight should have resulted in a slightly different occupation after the Japanese surrender. Analyzing screw-ups should result in better decisions going forward.<br /><br /> <br /><br />-- <br />Viva la Quince Brigada<br /><br /><br />aaallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-64894702106086973632022-08-01T15:47:07.703-04:002022-08-01T15:47:07.703-04:00Great and insightfulGreat and insightfulAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-85610021341259595432022-08-01T15:34:34.237-04:002022-08-01T15:34:34.237-04:00Part 2 of argument:
The big question according to...Part 2 of argument:<br /><br />The big question according to Herbert Marcuse: "By whom, and according to what standards, can the political distinction between true and false, progressive and regressive...be made and its validity justified?" (p 47). This distinction "can be made rationally on empirical grounds" (p 48) by a subversive elite (philosopher-anti-kings) that has developed truthful consciousness distinct from "the false consciousness that has become the general consciousness" (p 51). This means more censorship in order to make freedom progress: "To be sure, this is censorship, even precensorship, but openly directed against the more or less hidden censorship that permeates the free media" (p 51). Marcuse's methodological radicalism is supposed to "provide the Archimedean point for a larger emancipation" (p 52).<br /><br />But has he really explained "the existence of demonstrable criteria for aggressive, regressive, destructive forces" (p 57), or simply presupposed those crucial criteria for all future looking social critics? Does his whole argument hang on the claim to moral superiority of those resistance elites that dissent and lead forward? "Repressive Tolerance" is much more accessible to present-day students of radical philosophy than anything else Marcuse wrote with his impurity of heart methods.Tony Couturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05152011867765494204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-24833092074466264232022-08-01T15:32:55.595-04:002022-08-01T15:32:55.595-04:00Herbert Marcuse's most relevant essay for pres...Herbert Marcuse's most relevant essay for present-day students of radical philosophy is "Repressive Tolerance" (1965) which speaks directly to the rebel students and American public of the Sixties and yet also resonates with the apparent interests of the more vocal students or militant academics in higher education in 2022. It attacks political liberalism as a dying philosophy which uses the value of tolerance to preserve the capitalist status quo rather than protect dissent against its domination of our lives, so if they are trying to decide between a stable constitutional liberal democracy which can be reformed and a more experimental, authentically liberated democracy which is self-correcting rather than self-validating, it will still make sense.<br /><br />A careful (micro-)dose of illiberalism is supposed to cure the flawed individualistic liberty system and its inequalities, so a shock method is needed to "break the concreteness of oppression" (p 33, in The Essential Marcuse version of the essay). Marcuse is making an argument for methodological radicalism in philosophy, and moving away from the abstract fairness ideals of Rawls in his meta-philosophy that we can call methodological conservatism by contrast to Marcuse. The revolutionary jargon of Marcuse in 1965 is eerily the same as the dissenting student academic jargons of 2022, as if nothing had changed or progressed from a radical perspective.<br /><br />Politicized or impure tolerance is not perverted tolerance according to Marcuse (as it is for Rawls) but the right form for culture war to take concretely. Tolerance is not to be treated as an end in itself any more, it is to be bent to our liberated political agenda. Students are to resist by losing all tolerance of "the privileged position held by the predominant interests" (p 35). Marcuse was worried about nuclear war when he wrote: "But society cannot be indiscriminate where the pacification of existence, where freedom and happiness themselves are at stake: here, certain things cannot be said, certain ideas cannot be expressed, certain policies cannot be proposed, certain behavior cannot be permitted without making tolerance an instrument for the continuation of servitude" (p 37). Contemporary resistance says the same thing about nuclear war, and adds climate change denial to what cannot be tolerated.<br /><br />Purity of heart (as idealized by Rawls or others) and politically neutral interpretation have to be abandoned in order to "break the established universe of meaning (and the practice enclosed in this universe) in order to enable man to find out what is true and false" (p 43). Students today need a carefully reversed bias, "information slanted in the opposite direction" (p 44). Students need to be shocked by philosophy, their normal world ruptured in Marcuse's jargon: "This rupture--prerequisite and token of all freedom of thought and of speech--cannot be accomplished within the established framework of abstract tolerance and spurious objectivity because these are precisely the factors which precondition the mind against the rupture" (p 44).<br /><br />So radicals cancel culture instead of tolerating it: they demand "the withdrawal of toleration of speech and assembly from groups and movements which promote aggressive policies, armament, chauvinism, discrimination on the grounds of race and religion, or which oppose the extension of public services, social security, medical care, etc. Moreover, the restoration of freedom of thought may necessitate new and rigid restrictions on teaching and practices in the educational institutions which, by their very methods and concepts, serve to enclose the mind within the established universe of discourse and behavior--thereby precluding a priori a rational evaluation of the alternatives" (p 45).<br /><br />Tony Couturehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05152011867765494204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-19463661250141570342022-08-01T15:20:43.103-04:002022-08-01T15:20:43.103-04:00I’ve just come across this review by Raymond Geuss...<br />I’ve just come across this review by Raymond Geuss, someone who occasionally gets a mention on this blog (and who did write a book on critical theory —that’s my acknowledgement of the Marcusean theme of this thread). It’s quite amusing and informative. And it includes a photo of a cat.<br /><br /><br />https://www.radicalphilosophy.com/wp-content/files_mf/rp190_commentary1_geuss_russell_brand.pdf<br /><br /><br />Here’s how it ends (which would seem to cast, if only indirectly, a negative light on Marcuse whom so many seem to regard as obscure):<br /><br /><br />"In contrast to most books about political philosophy, Brand’s actually engages<br />with facts that we can recognize as part of our everyday lives and has a remarkable<br />number of concrete political suggestions, such as dismantling any corporation with<br />a revenue larger than the GNP of the smallest state in the world (81), limiting the<br />lifespans of corporation (225–39), re-localizing food production (86), prohibiting<br />private security arrangements (113–16), cancelling private debt (92–7, 171–3), creating<br />co-ops (240–50), decriminalizing drug-use, and so on. I confess that I hadn’t really<br />registered Brand’s existence until his book came out, but when I read it I was<br />surprised to find it an absolute treasure trove of keen observations. So, let me end<br />with one of these:<br /><br />"We know ... that the dismantling and privatisation of the NHS is not for the benefit of us, the people who use it. It benefits the government that proposed it and the companies that are purchasing it. Nobody voted for it because nobody would be stupid enough to give us the option. (124)" "Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-29769090941527655392022-08-01T09:42:21.915-04:002022-08-01T09:42:21.915-04:00So, aaall, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Du...So, aaall, the Portuguese, the Spanish, and the Dutch were merely traders? Domination wasn't what they were into. I'm sure many places in the world would be very surprised to hear that. You're certainly right on one point, however: they couldn't have done worse.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-58075123466267927742022-07-31T22:01:30.307-04:002022-07-31T22:01:30.307-04:00aaall
Chiang wasn't interested in independence...aaall<br />Chiang wasn't interested in independence, was he? He was interested in maintaining that his regime represented the legitimate govt of all of China. <br /><br />I frankly grow a little weary of a certain ahistorical quality of assertions to the effect that X should have resulted in Y, when the relevant actors were ideologically and politically opposed to Y. Foresight probably should have resulted in a lot of things, but I'm not sure that means that Taiwan's declaring independence now wd be a sensible step. I'm strongly inclined to think it wd not be.LFChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551197682770555147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-67097626143530975042022-07-31T21:24:32.576-04:002022-07-31T21:24:32.576-04:00Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Shi...Good Evening Mr. and Mrs. America, and All the Ships at Sea:<br /><br />Anon, because of the problems around Confucian scholasticism, the prevailing faction in the court made a world class blunder. Whatever the reasons, scrapping what was arguably the world's best navy just as European nations were figuring things out was going to end one way. <br /><br />Domination didn't have to be the goal. They could have done well just trading. Certainly couldn't have done worse then the Portuguese, Spanish, or Dutch. Just as I don't idealize Ukraine, I certainly don't idealize any dynasty or emperor. As I have previously pointed out land empires are evil.<br /><br /><br /><br /> aaallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-61558532900807439712022-07-31T20:47:50.356-04:002022-07-31T20:47:50.356-04:00It's interesting, aaall, that you phrase it as...It's interesting, aaall, that you phrase it as China "trashing its Navy." Long ago I heard someone--I think it was Immanuel Wallerstein, but I'm probably wrong--telling the story of how China put together a massive fleet of ships and went exploring as far as, I think, Africa. But then sailed home again and decided that the attempt to dominate distant parts of the world wasn't for them. As you can tell from my telling, the lecturer was comparing the Chinese actions very positively in comparison to the Western/ European/American tendency to dominate others in distant places.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-45364572116596288862022-07-31T20:28:49.049-04:002022-07-31T20:28:49.049-04:00aaall,
Your writing style reminds me of Walter Wi...aaall,<br /><br />Your writing style reminds me of Walter Winchell speaking.Marc Susselmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-65758597209556898462022-07-31T19:36:41.492-04:002022-07-31T19:36:41.492-04:00Actually Hoover was a dummy who got his start with...Actually Hoover was a dummy who got his start with the Palmer raids and never got past that. He lasted because he had files on everyone who could fire him.<br /><br />The KGB pdf lays out what every nation with the chops does. If it wasn't so dangerous, the penetration of the various organs of the American Right would be funny. Always keep in mind that they never got all the Americans.<br /><br />If Russia holds its phony referendums in eastern Ukraine and the PRC recognizes them then maybe a similar but legitimate referendum in Taiwan? Nancy may just slip in out without fanfare.<br /><br />Back in the 1960s I knew an exchange student from Hong Kong. In various discussions it came out that he has a lot of anger over the Opium Wars. Back in the Ming Dynasty China screwed up big time by trashing its Navy. Long memories. Now that it again has a real navy and air force Taiwan makes a cool carrier.aaallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-61251063609598925442022-07-31T18:38:20.248-04:002022-07-31T18:38:20.248-04:00No one here has justified China. However, some...No one here has justified China. However, some, including Thomas Friedman, not exactly an apologist for the far left, believe that "we" shouldn't be poking (his word) China at this moment, since first of all, "we" are already engaged with a conflict in Ukraine and second, because the Chinese have so far been very cooperative in not actively supporting Russia in Ukraine, but that could change if "we" poke them. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-2247993007782063742022-07-31T18:14:51.925-04:002022-07-31T18:14:51.925-04:00Given how China has treated Hong Kong, suppressing...Given how China has treated Hong Kong, suppressing dissent and jailing protesters, I can understand that Taiwan and its people are nervous about China’s intentions. Why should Nancy Pelosi, or any American, care that China does not want any American politician to visit Taiwan, sending a message of support. After Chiang Kai Shek escaped to Taiwan, and left China to the control of Mao Tse Tung, the mainland Chinese did not fare particularly well. If the U.S. made threats to foreign diplomats about their visiting Cuba or Venezuela, everyone would denounce the U.S. for its imperialism. Just because China views Taiwan as its property, what right does it have to tell foreign diplomats that they had better not visit Taiwan?Marc Susselmannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-12331742875227580172022-07-31T18:12:02.484-04:002022-07-31T18:12:02.484-04:00aaall,
Your link looks like a selection from the ...aaall,<br /><br />Your link looks like a selection from the complete works of J. Edgar Hoover. s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-79545916679755784642022-07-31T17:42:21.473-04:002022-07-31T17:42:21.473-04:00LFC, Taiwan is a ball of worms but the PLAN didn&#...LFC, Taiwan is a ball of worms but the PLAN didn't exist in the late 1940s/early 1950s, ambiguity and foresight should have resulted in independence.<br /><br />s.w.<br /><br />https://www.4freerussia.org/you-don-t-have-to-be-recruited-to-work-for-russian-intelligence/aaallnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-84752814644853498352022-07-31T14:26:58.797-04:002022-07-31T14:26:58.797-04:00Somewhat to do with intellectual/political fashion...Somewhat to do with intellectual/political fashions and the passage of time (and on US-China relations):<br /><br />https://harpers.org/nc-redirect/?redirect_to=https://harpers.org/archive/2022/07/what-comes-after-the-american-century/<br /><br />and an extending response<br /><br />https://consortiumnews.com/2022/07/12/imperial-detritus/<br /><br />Free Julian Assange—happy to see you reference him, Jerry F.—whose only ‘crime’ has been to reveal some of the truth about the system these two arguments call into question. I guess repressive tolerance was failing to do the job.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-5651948452744437032022-07-31T11:22:41.168-04:002022-07-31T11:22:41.168-04:00I happened to learn yesterday, in the sort of thin...I happened to learn yesterday, in the sort of thing that link-following has made somewhat easy, that Franz Neumann's son wrote a memoir about that Up Against the Wall... group.LFChttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13551197682770555147noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-71309038455031083202022-07-31T11:17:14.633-04:002022-07-31T11:17:14.633-04:00Re the LFC-SW discussion:
Paraphrasing Julian Ass...Re the LFC-SW discussion:<br /><br />Paraphrasing Julian Assange, the point of US foreign policy is not to foment war but to foment endless war. Thomas Friedman's warning that it is not the time to "poke" the China bear implies that there is a right time, and it may be around the corner.<br /><br />Jerry Fresiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17566575038825699112noreply@blogger.com