Jonathan Wolff | Lightnews

Jo Wolff

@jowolff.bsky.social

27K followers 3.5K following 17K posts

Jonathan Wolff,
Political Philosopher.
Fellow British Academy
Emeritus Professor Blavatnik School of Government, Oxford
Wolfson College
President The Royal Institute of Philosophy
THFC supporter in 'early season false hope’ mode.

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Jonathan Wolff is a British philosopher. He is a Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy and Public Policy and Governing Body Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. He was formerly the Alfred Landecker Professor of Values and Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. Prior to his joining the Blavatnik School in 2016, Wolff's academic career had been spent at University College London (UCL), where he was, latterly, Professor of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. .. more

Political science 51%

Philosophy 14%

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Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · Nov 21

I’ve changed my header photo to this one. It shows my father Herbert and his sister Lotte with their parents Fritz and Marta in their Frankfurt apartment before Herbert and Lotte were sent to England on the Kindertransport, and later Fritz and Marta transported to Lodz Ghetto, final fate unknown.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 6h

“No stone will be left unturned.”

The only things I’ve found under stones are worms. I presume others have had better luck.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 6h

Hahahahaha! Congratulations to you both.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 7h

5th January tomorrow. Don’t forget to keep the ‘Out of Office’ on, so the people you’re corresponding with think they’re smarter than you and become complacent.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 7h

That’s probably better than it could be. Let’s hope they lose interest quickly.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 11h

C.L.R. James wrote ‘Every Cook Can Govern.’ Maybe it inspired Trump. With his poor level of literacy he read ‘Crook’ for ‘Cook’.

Anti-Colonial History @anticolonialhistry.bsky.social · 12h

On this day in 1901, CLR James is born in Trinidad. James was an important anti-colonial activist, socialist historian, theorist, journalist and cricket aficionado.

anticolonialhistory.com/event/148/

Reposted by Jonathan Wolff, Lesley Bartlett, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Anti-Colonial History @anticolonialhistry.bsky.social · 12h

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 13h

What can we do about the USA? Has anyone tried exorcism?

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 16h

Not me!! Sorry.

Reposted by Seán Hanley

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 17h

The sun never sets on the American Empire. That’s why Trump has such a terrific tan.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 17h

'This view was expressed, e.g. by Professor Paul Ziff in The Feelings of Robots in Minds and Machines, ed. A. R. Anderson, Prentice-Hall Contemporary Perspectives in Philosophy Series (1964). Other authors contested it. I regard my argument in its
favour as decisive.'

A footnote by Michael Polanyi.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 17h

Donning down.

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

A post shared by the US Defence Secretary

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 19h

So the plan seems to be to replace chaotic Venezuelan corruption with more efficient US corruption.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 19h

Right. But it’s not very unified about what it wants and is too easily swayed by whatever it heard last.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 20h

The trouble with having a lawyer as Prime Minister is that their training is to do their best for their client rather than to pursue their own agenda.

Reposted by Georg Weizsäcker, Francesco Nicoli

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 21h

I don’t believe any country has ever been invaded for its offshore wind turbines.

Reposted by Jonathan Wolff

Seye Abimbola @seyeabimbola.bsky.social · 21h

“Every empire, however, tells itself and the world that it is unlike all other empires, that its mission is not to plunder and control but to educate and liberate."

― Edward W. Said

Reposted by Steve Peers, Jonathan Wolff

Sunder Katwala (sundersays) @sundersays.bsky.social · 1d

A post shared by the US Defence Secretary

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

The older you get the more you used to know.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

They’re going to put Big Balls and Grok in charge of Venezuela, aren’t they?

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

Watching The Lowdown on Disney +. Very enjoyable Elmore Leonard/Kinky Friedman vibe, said by someone with only a passing acquaintance with the genre.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

Trump’s doctrine of Manifest Density.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

He did! Just for a few months.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

When you buy two second hands books you don’t know much about by the same academic author, for roughly the same price.

A very thick hard back copy of Harold Laski’s A Grammar of Politics and a very thin paperback of his An Introduction to Politics.

Reposted by Steven French

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

From 1989. Some might say that it’s shifted continent fairly recently.

Cover of Christopher Duggan’s book Fascism and the Mafia.

Reposted by Steven French, Jonathan Wolff, Alan Richardson , and 2 more Steven French, Jonathan Wolff, Alan Richardson, Els Torreele, Mary Margaret McCabe

Mark Chadbourn @chadbourn.bsky.social · 1d

French Foreign Ministry: “The removal of Maduro from power and the violation of sovereignty constitute a serious act of aggression against the dignity of the Venezuelan people and their right to determine their own future.

Jo Wolff @jowolff.bsky.social · 1d

“By liberty I mean the eager maintenance of that atmosphere in which men have the opportunity to be their best selves.”

I’d assumed that ‘best selves’ talk originated with the self-help airport book, but this is political theorist Harold Laski in a book first published in 1926.