tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post5550810850861702208..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: A MEDITATIONRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36987820047261800012021-04-19T09:20:19.193-04:002021-04-19T09:20:19.193-04:00Nice post
> I cannot see the people to whom I ...Nice post<br /><br />> I cannot see the people to whom I imagine myself to be talking nor can they see me and, strangest of all, I cannot really tell where they are, how old they are, whether they are male or female, and who they are as people. I do not find this liberating, I find it unsettling.<br /><br />Here is one data point: I am a male, 29-year old programmer from Switzerland who sometimes reads some of your blog posts instead of doing my job. I've taken an interest in leftist politics, which was triggered by watching chomsky videos on youtube about 5 years ago and have tried to read Kapital for a bit. The interest in philosophy can be traced back to me reading https://existentialcomics.com/. I stumbled upon your blog a few weeks ago, I think because it was recommended on /r/askphilosophy. I live in one of our bigger cities and might be an asperger.<br /><br /> I suspect there are as many unique backgrounds (gender, age, location, occupation, language, ethnicity...) among your readership as you have readers. God bless.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36668767167389634222021-04-17T04:25:36.621-04:002021-04-17T04:25:36.621-04:00Dear Professor,
You are an extraordinary philosop...Dear Professor,<br /><br />You are an extraordinary philosopher. I already noticed that when I watched the Kant lectures on Youtube. The blog here, which I found after a short search on the Internet, confirmed this impression. By "extraordinary" I mean the way you link the contents of philosophical theories with your own biography and with the experiences of your life. <br /><br />When Heidegger was asked by a student (Gadamer) after one of his lectures what role Aristotle's life had played for Aristotle's philosophy he replied, "What can you say: he was born, he thought, and he died."<br /><br />Now, one might say, this was wishful thinking on Heidegger's part for his own biography and privacy. As an anti-Semite, he might have preferred that we ignore his biography when reading his philosophy.<br /><br />On the other hand, this little story points out that theorists have always been afraid that their own lives and experiences would undermine the claim of " objectivity " of their work. Even today there are some philosophers who would like to be like physicists or mathematicians.<br /><br />It belongs meanwhile, (since a few months) to my routine in the morning, that I follow your thoughts with a cup of coffee in my hand and with joy and great interest. Much of it still goes through my mind during the day. I don't think I'm an exception with that.<br /><br />In my experience, the only possible way to deal with trolls on the Internet is to ignore them completely. Give up the idea that these people could grab your keyboard while you write, or that they would cotaminate what you say. The well-meaning and capable people here are able to separate the wheat from the chaff.Achim Kriechel (A.K.)noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-65500789600125045312021-04-17T00:54:08.603-04:002021-04-17T00:54:08.603-04:00I quite agree with LFC, and could not myself write...I quite agree with LFC, and could not myself write anything half so moving as Guy, but your blog, and online lectures, have been a source of a great deal of learning, but also deep joy and meaning. Prof, your deep, profound humaneness and intelligence and wit and wisdom are evident in even your most "trivial" of posts. Thank you for sharing so much of your knowledge and yourself over the years; it truly has been a privilege.TheDudeDiogeneshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11613928663752680375noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-65783763424862572222021-04-16T23:21:35.057-04:002021-04-16T23:21:35.057-04:00P.s. I think Guy Mizrahi's comment alone shoul...P.s. I think Guy Mizrahi's comment alone should be enough to convince Prof. Wolff that he has left his mark. LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-1089520297992728292021-04-16T23:13:57.115-04:002021-04-16T23:13:57.115-04:00I'm somewhat reluctant to comment, as I recent...I'm somewhat reluctant to comment, as I recently said I'd be commenting here less frequently. So much for that promise! <br /><br />Many, or perhaps most, human beings want to make a mark on the world in some way, want to feel that they have left something of value that will outlive them. When Prof. Wolff says it's important to him "to believe that something of what I have written will live after me," he's expressing a version of this universal, or almost universal, human aspiration. <br /><br />I've written little, in terms of both volume and impact, compared to Prof. Wolff, but I certainly hope that something I've written will in some way outlive me. What person who has ever written so much as a paragraph or two -- in whatever format or medium, except perhaps a dry-as-dust accounting audit or something like that -- <i>wouldn't</i> hope that? (In my case, as of right now, I'd have to say the chances of anything I've written outliving me are quite minuscule, but that's irrelevant to the point here, which is that we all want to put some mark on the world because humans -- again as a broad generalization -- want to feel that their lives are, and will have been, meaningful.) Now there are various and sundry ways to leave a mark on the world, and writing of course is only one of them, but the point still stands. LFCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-31496642854234308472021-04-16T16:50:55.879-04:002021-04-16T16:50:55.879-04:00Prof Wolff:
On reading this piece, I was going to...Prof Wolff:<br /><br />On reading this piece, I was going to write, "But, sir, your mind is as sharp as a tack" only to realize that someone beat me to it. <br /><br />I am delighted to you referenced two of my favorites: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (which I know by heart). I especially love Richard Burton's reading of the poem (<a href="https://youtu.be/519uMc2eaSo" rel="nofollow">Youtube link.</a>) <br /><br />You also referred to Goodby Mr Chips, a favorite old movie. I like the 1939 movie, starring Robert Donat. <br /><br />Best wishes always.<br />AtanuAtanu Deyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17966939272970135374noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-14037941852108099182021-04-16T16:48:43.690-04:002021-04-16T16:48:43.690-04:00Professor, your teaching career, books, ideas blog...Professor, your teaching career, books, ideas blog, videos, and exceptional character have already solidified your immortality. There's no need to second guess it. When a man commits his life to, and succeeds in, pushing the needle of human truth ever so slightly as to, even in the most simple ways, improve the world around him, he is immortal. How noble to live your life as part of the Great Conversation and to make incredible use of your time alive as to improve the debate ongoing at the Philosophical Dinner Table.<br /><br />I only got into your work this summer, but I'll never forget the moment it occurred and how impactful it has since been. I was working my lifeguarding shift at the local pool (as I do in the summers) on a rainy day. It was just my coworker and I sitting alone in the office waiting for the sun to shine. I was, at the time, reading Kant for the first time and eventually used your lectures as a guide. <br /><br />But that day at the pool I actually spent most of my 10-hour-stuck-inside shift binging your entire series on Marx. What a trip! Finally it all *clicked*! I went and got a new copy of Capital and went cover to cover. I felt as though I'd escaped the Platonic Cave! That I'd touched Hegel's Absolute Knowledge! That I'd transcended my own self of however long ago. I could close my eyes and see Marx sitting there, at the British Museum, writing away. That summer was just incredible, and it wouldn't have been as it was without your ideas, Professor. <br /><br />You're an incredible soul, and there's no doubt in my mind you've still got a lot to share with us here on Earth. Guy Mizrahihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03314203995456655262noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-8909697430249269572021-04-16T15:23:59.178-04:002021-04-16T15:23:59.178-04:00This comment has been removed by the author.Tom Weirhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07015704774459132399noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-36146186945811148242021-04-16T14:55:09.959-04:002021-04-16T14:55:09.959-04:00Thank you, Tom. I cannot tell you how much that m...Thank you, Tom. I cannot tell you how much that means to me. I will keep plugging away as long as I can.Robert Paul Wolffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-10961708675983540492021-04-16T13:33:28.321-04:002021-04-16T13:33:28.321-04:00I am a great admirer of your commitment to human v...I am a great admirer of your commitment to human values and social change. You are a national treasure. Read your blog almost every day and own 4 or 5 of your books. Hope you have at least 5 more productive years to help people who are seriously concerned with ideas. tom llewellynnoreply@blogger.com