Nathan Ballantyne
@nathanballantyne.bsky.social
Prof of Philosophy, Cognition, and Culture at @ASU. Research on bias, expertise, disagreement, and open-minded thinking. Author of Knowing Our Limits (Oxford).
I wrote a short essay about a disagreement I recently had with a friend.
thefulcrum.us/civic-engage...
thefulcrum.us/civic-engage...
Setting Down the Microphone While Your Opponent Speaks
It’s often hard to know what people disagree about when they disagree about Charlie Kirk.I live and work in Arizona, but before the assassination, I knew of Kirk only vaguely. After the shooting, a co...
thefulcrum.us
October 26, 2025 at 1:39 PM
I wrote a short essay about a disagreement I recently had with a friend.
thefulcrum.us/civic-engage...
thefulcrum.us/civic-engage...
Desert kit fox
September 1, 2025 at 3:02 PM
Desert kit fox
Course readers are back in style
August 29, 2025 at 12:38 AM
Course readers are back in style
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
A remarkable interview with a remarkable person And by one too. Nathan Ballantyne spends months on these things, getting the questions right and teasing things out of his subjects that no one else has ever managed to do. Read this one, and then read them all.
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
Penelope Maddy’s Workbench - The Workbench
A writer’s world is often invisible from the outside unless they let you in. Sometimes when a sentence, paragraph, or essay strikes you as forceful or elegant, you might try to reverse engineer the au...
www.the-workbench.ca
August 25, 2025 at 10:07 PM
A remarkable interview with a remarkable person And by one too. Nathan Ballantyne spends months on these things, getting the questions right and teasing things out of his subjects that no one else has ever managed to do. Read this one, and then read them all.
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
"In philosophy especially, I figure the reader is nearly always gasping for breath, in danger of being swept out to sea, so the writer should do everything in their power to help..." Penelope Maddy is interviewed by Nathan Ballantyne - @nathanballantyne.bsky.social - at The Workbench
“Pity the Poor Reader” - Daily Nous
"Pity the poor reader" is one of philosopher Penelope Maddy's writing maxims. Maddy is Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of California, Irvine, and is interviewed about her writing by...
dailynous.com
August 25, 2025 at 1:23 PM
"In philosophy especially, I figure the reader is nearly always gasping for breath, in danger of being swept out to sea, so the writer should do everything in their power to help..." Penelope Maddy is interviewed by Nathan Ballantyne - @nathanballantyne.bsky.social - at The Workbench
I interviewed philosopher Penelope Maddy about her writing craft. We talked about her past experience in Hollywood screenwriting, her advice to students, baseball, and more. Check it out!
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
Penelope Maddy’s Workbench - The Workbench
A writer’s world is often invisible from the outside unless they let you in. Sometimes when a sentence, paragraph, or essay strikes you as forceful or elegant, you might try to reverse engineer the au...
www.the-workbench.ca
August 25, 2025 at 1:59 PM
I interviewed philosopher Penelope Maddy about her writing craft. We talked about her past experience in Hollywood screenwriting, her advice to students, baseball, and more. Check it out!
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
www.the-workbench.ca/interviews/p...
Here’s the best poem ever written about John Rawls.
April 23, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Here’s the best poem ever written about John Rawls.
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
Academics, who like to laugh about the students’ clichéd preamble “For thousands of years, people have wondered about…,” also like to begin “No one has yet provided a thorough study of…”
February 4, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Academics, who like to laugh about the students’ clichéd preamble “For thousands of years, people have wondered about…,” also like to begin “No one has yet provided a thorough study of…”
Everybody chill out and take an epistemology pill
February 3, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Everybody chill out and take an epistemology pill
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
We are all our own classic New Yorker cover cartoon...
(psst, those younger can google Saul Steinberg, 9th avenue, New Yorker)
(psst, those younger can google Saul Steinberg, 9th avenue, New Yorker)
Theateritis: “the tendency of military commanders to look only at the needs of their own theater of operation, and not at the requirements of fighting the war as a whole.”
February 1, 2025 at 4:43 PM
We are all our own classic New Yorker cover cartoon...
(psst, those younger can google Saul Steinberg, 9th avenue, New Yorker)
(psst, those younger can google Saul Steinberg, 9th avenue, New Yorker)
Theateritis: “the tendency of military commanders to look only at the needs of their own theater of operation, and not at the requirements of fighting the war as a whole.”
February 1, 2025 at 4:32 PM
Theateritis: “the tendency of military commanders to look only at the needs of their own theater of operation, and not at the requirements of fighting the war as a whole.”
An excellent essay about misconduct in Alzheimer’s research.
“Hubris and lassitude about misconduct — shared by other funders and regulators, journals and universities — has to change. Alzheimer’s research must start self-policing effectively.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...
“Hubris and lassitude about misconduct — shared by other funders and regulators, journals and universities — has to change. Alzheimer’s research must start self-policing effectively.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...
Opinion | The Long Shadow of Fraud in Alzheimer’s Research (Gift Article)
Fraud in research needs to end.
www.nytimes.com
January 26, 2025 at 7:02 PM
An excellent essay about misconduct in Alzheimer’s research.
“Hubris and lassitude about misconduct — shared by other funders and regulators, journals and universities — has to change. Alzheimer’s research must start self-policing effectively.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...
“Hubris and lassitude about misconduct — shared by other funders and regulators, journals and universities — has to change. Alzheimer’s research must start self-policing effectively.”
www.nytimes.com/2025/01/24/o...
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
Moore’s proof strikes almost everyone as circular. Yet, Moore appears curiously indifferent to this worry—what gives? My paper, “Moore’s Fourth Condition,” forthcoming in the Journal of the History of Philosophy, draws on unpublished archival evidence to provide some answers. tinyurl.com/2c48txr9
www.louisdoulas.info
January 22, 2025 at 5:25 PM
Moore’s proof strikes almost everyone as circular. Yet, Moore appears curiously indifferent to this worry—what gives? My paper, “Moore’s Fourth Condition,” forthcoming in the Journal of the History of Philosophy, draws on unpublished archival evidence to provide some answers. tinyurl.com/2c48txr9
“Philosophy is the conflict between the obvious and the obvious.” – Renford Bambrough (1926–99)
January 14, 2025 at 3:26 AM
“Philosophy is the conflict between the obvious and the obvious.” – Renford Bambrough (1926–99)
“Never trust anyone”
January 12, 2025 at 10:26 PM
“Never trust anyone”
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
What is a question in philosophy where, the more you read and think, the deeper it seems?
January 9, 2025 at 11:19 PM
What is a question in philosophy where, the more you read and think, the deeper it seems?
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
“In philosophy if you aren't moving at a snail's pace you aren't moving at all.” Iris Murdoch.
December 30, 2024 at 7:30 PM
“In philosophy if you aren't moving at a snail's pace you aren't moving at all.” Iris Murdoch.
Philosophy, according to Irwin Edman (1896–1954), a professor at Columbia University, is “a peculiarly serious and comprehensive kind of poetry.”
December 21, 2024 at 5:24 PM
Philosophy, according to Irwin Edman (1896–1954), a professor at Columbia University, is “a peculiarly serious and comprehensive kind of poetry.”
Richard Cartwright, a well-regarded philosopher who spent most of his career at MIT, got into graduate school with this recommendation letter as a part of his application.
December 21, 2024 at 8:13 AM
Richard Cartwright, a well-regarded philosopher who spent most of his career at MIT, got into graduate school with this recommendation letter as a part of his application.
An audacious grad school application cover letter from James Ross, who taught at UPenn until his death in 2010.
“The application asks what my future plens and ambitions may be. In a word they are this: to become the finest and most influential professor of philosophy in the country.”
“The application asks what my future plens and ambitions may be. In a word they are this: to become the finest and most influential professor of philosophy in the country.”
December 21, 2024 at 7:31 AM
An audacious grad school application cover letter from James Ross, who taught at UPenn until his death in 2010.
“The application asks what my future plens and ambitions may be. In a word they are this: to become the finest and most influential professor of philosophy in the country.”
“The application asks what my future plens and ambitions may be. In a word they are this: to become the finest and most influential professor of philosophy in the country.”
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
Why do people interpret numbers to favor their political preferences? Do numeracy skills affect this bias? @clintmckenna.bsky.social and @daviddunning6.bsky.social examine psychological mechanisms underlying biased interpretation of scientific data. #PsychSky psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
APA PsycNet
psycnet.apa.org
December 20, 2024 at 6:29 PM
Why do people interpret numbers to favor their political preferences? Do numeracy skills affect this bias? @clintmckenna.bsky.social and @daviddunning6.bsky.social examine psychological mechanisms underlying biased interpretation of scientific data. #PsychSky psycnet.apa.org/record/2025-...
Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne
A list of what I am planning to cover in the podcasts on early modern French and Dutch philosophy (17th-18th centuries).
The first episode of this series will go up on Feb 2 after we finish off the Counterreformation with Galileo.
www.historyofphilosophy.net/what-to-expe...
#philsky #earlymodern
The first episode of this series will go up on Feb 2 after we finish off the Counterreformation with Galileo.
www.historyofphilosophy.net/what-to-expe...
#philsky #earlymodern
December 18, 2024 at 9:55 PM
A list of what I am planning to cover in the podcasts on early modern French and Dutch philosophy (17th-18th centuries).
The first episode of this series will go up on Feb 2 after we finish off the Counterreformation with Galileo.
www.historyofphilosophy.net/what-to-expe...
#philsky #earlymodern
The first episode of this series will go up on Feb 2 after we finish off the Counterreformation with Galileo.
www.historyofphilosophy.net/what-to-expe...
#philsky #earlymodern