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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Now Available: Volumes I, II, III, and IV of the Collected Published and Unpublished Papers.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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Tuesday, July 19, 2011

WE FEW, WE HAPPY FEW, WE BAND OF BROTHERS [AND SISTERS, TO ALTER THE FAMOUS LINE SOMEWHAT]

When I was posting my Memoir in daily instalments, replete with academic gossip and such like, this site was visited daily by several thousand people. When I finished that epic three volume work and took to writing "tutorials" on Marx, Freud, the Study of Society, and lately Afro-American Studies, the number dwindled steadily until now perhaps four hundred visits a day are recorded. In the popularity-driven realm of the internet, where the number of people who have friended you on FaceBook counts for all, this fall off would be considered a disaster. I prefer to think that through a process of rigorous self-selection, an elite circle of serious lovers of the life of the mind have gathered for some serious conversation.

Accordingly, I am considering a series of posts -- not quite a Tutorial, to be sure -- designed to introduce people to Kant's Critique of Pure Reason. A full-scale tutorial would be monstrously difficult, and since my first [and arguably my best] book, Kant's Theory of Mental Activity, constitutes such a tutorial in depth, I will leave it to those who are interested to consult it, with the Critique in hand.

So, if English Jerk is not the only freak out there [as he puts it], let me know, and with only a little encouragement, I shall revisit my first love.

10 comments:

Arbitrista said...

A review of the Critique sounds fun!

Danny said...

Do those numbers include RSS readers?

We may be quite invisible most of the time, but we enjoy reading your wit and wisdom just the same!

Robert Paul Wolff said...

What is an RSS reader? [You see how clueless I am!]

jrshipley said...

I subscribe via Real Simple Syndication also. It's a blog syndication service standard for blogger, wordpress, etc. That means I read the blog in Google Reader rather than at its home on blogger.com. Google Reader aggregates a bunch of RSS feeds that I subscribe to (others use other feed aggregators). For me, it's a lot of skimming during short breaks in research and writing. Yours is one of my favorites even though I don't engage in close reading and discussion. Anyway, for what it's worth, for me a Kant refresher would be nice, though I'm sure the regular commenters forming a community here comprise your audience of primary concern.

AW said...

I was just about to ask about the RSS feed myself! I almost always read the posts from Google reader - I have no idea if that counts in terms of pageviews.

In any event, I enjoyed the Afro-American studies tutorial, and I'd love to read about the Critique.

Unknown said...

I'd also love to read a series on the first Critique.

Incidentally, Professor Wolff, I came across Kant's Theory of Mental Activity in my department's small library about a month ago. I haven't had a chance to read it yet, but it's on my list.

jim said...

I'm a freak out here.

Utopian Yuri said...

i can't say i've ever been consumed by a desire to learn kant's work. but if you're going to do a blog tutorial (blutorial?) about it, i'll read it faithfully and i'm sure i'll learn something.

Kevin said...

I'm almost positive that RSS feeds are not counted by blogger. I'm also another RSS-reader. And regarding Kant: is that even a question? Yes.

Karl Aho said...

I'm an RSS reader, and I'd love to work through the First Critique in this context.