Digressionsimpressions
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Digressionsimpressions
@nescio13.bsky.social
6.2K followers 1.6K following 3.8K posts
Philosopher who got a gig as political theorist at University of Amsterdam; also known as Ghent Zeppelin. I have a daily substack:
https://digressionsimpressions.substack.com/publish
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loadofbunk.bsky.social
Mary Hesse on "the political aspect of...the Vienna Circle" and why analytic philosophers had "lost the urgency" of epistemological questions given that they "divorced their philosophy from ideological and practical interests" (1980, xiii).

archive.org/details/revo...
The revival of metaphysical realism after decades of positivism is one of the most remarkable features of current analytic philosophy. It may perhaps be traced to a fundamental difference of interest between analytic philosophers of the present generation and those who founded the positivist schools of epistemology. The difference may briefly be expressed by saying that the latter were concerned with what we can now to be true and wished to repudiate metaphysical claims to knowledge, specially because these tended to be associated with Hegelian tradition not only in philosophy but also in authoritarian religion and politcs. Liberalism and social democracy, the Vienna positivists though, were better defended in association with naturalistic knowledge. Modern analytic philosophers...have generally divorced their philosophical from their ideological and practical interests, and have therefore lost the urgency of the question 'How can we know?' Her reference: "R.S. Cohen, 'Neurath, Otto'...It is remarkable how little of the political aspect of the thought of the Vienna Circle was mentioned in connection with its philosophical history until recently." She tells the reader to contrast the articles in The legacy of logical positivism with Janik and Toulmin's Wittgenstein's Vienna.
November 11, 2025 at 3:32 AM
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On the Interaction Effects of Multiple regulations; on Engineering the Financial Crisis
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Interaction Effects of Multiple regulations; on Engineering the Financial Crisis
A few weeks ago, when I was discussing my current research with Shterna Friedman, during her visit to Tulane, she mentioned I might like Jeffrey Friedman and Wladimir Kraus’ (2011) Engineering the Fin...
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Re the Dutch election: I am actually fascinated that several years of intense and growing climate activism has made so little impact on at least two subsequent elections. Not sure what explains this.
November 10, 2025 at 8:06 PM
On the Interaction Effects of Multiple regulations; on Engineering the Financial Crisis
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Interaction Effects of Multiple regulations; on Engineering the Financial Crisis
A few weeks ago, when I was discussing my current research with Shterna Friedman, during her visit to Tulane, she mentioned I might like Jeffrey Friedman and Wladimir Kraus’ (2011) Engineering the Fin...
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:10 PM
The Montesquieu essay was very neat. Basically argues that if you treat Montesquieu as a mercantilist the whole book falls into place.
November 10, 2025 at 2:24 AM
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scottjshapiro.bsky.social
After their resounding victory in Tuesday’s elections, the Democrats had no choice but to surrender.
November 10, 2025 at 12:59 AM
I would love to understand tactically and strategically why in a week of electoral victories senate Democrats are tempted to cave on the shutdown without anything to show for it.
November 10, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Still don't care for his Marxism, but I enjoy reading Althusser’s works on the history of political thought.
November 9, 2025 at 1:19 AM
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jamellebouie.net
one thing i find crazy-making is the idea that getting rid of the filibuster would make congress a purely majoritarian institution. bicameralism itself is counter-majoritarian! equal state representation is counter-majoritarian! the fact that senate elections are staggered is counter-majoritarian!
November 8, 2025 at 10:26 PM
Spitballing here: why not repeal Obamacare and replace it with a single payer insurance system and call it Trumpcare?
November 9, 2025 at 1:11 AM
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loadofbunk.bsky.social
Was it history or philosophy of science that had to make alimony payments after the divorce? Did they ever discuss staying together for the kids, Indy and Pitt? Who got to stay friends with Stephen Toulmin? Too many unanswered questions in HOHAPOS.
November 8, 2025 at 3:29 PM
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loadofbunk.bsky.social
Thought maybe I needed to figure out microfilm, but the Internet Archive is a modern marvel that makes it possible to find issues of The Listener from 1951 in which Michael Polyani criticizes Stephen Toulmin's interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics.

archive.org/details/list...
Sir. I agree with Mr Toulmin in his talk published in the Listener of March 8, that we should not worry about the running-down of the universe--for I think we have not enough evidence for it--but I am disturbed by the methods of his argument. Mr Toulmin suggests that there is a logical impossibility involved in applying the Second Law of Thermodynamics to the universe, and he illustrates this by the impossibility of weight fire. He ascribes this impossibility to the fact that in our present system of chemical classification, the word 'fire' does not figure as the name of a stuff'. But surely, whatever limitations are imposed on the verbal context in which we may use the word 'fire' are derived from our knowledge of fire, and it is therefore wholly circular to derive any knowledge about fire from the way the word 'fire' may be used. In playing with 'fire' Mr Toulmin is playing with fire; his linguistic critique, bent on casting out verbalism, lets it in with a vengeance." Polanyi continues to note the half a dozen formulations of the second law of thermodynamics.
November 8, 2025 at 7:53 PM
November 8, 2025 at 6:52 PM
Shklar on the function of Academic/Scholarly Activism
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Shklar on the function of Academic/Scholarly Activism
I am reading Edward Hall’s Power and Powerlessness: The Liberalism of Fear in the Twenty-First Century (OUP 2025) at the moment. This is a book that creatively develops and updates Judith Shklar’s ‘li...
open.substack.com
November 7, 2025 at 9:25 PM
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A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill
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A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill
I don’t like calling attention to my first-order political views, but it is fair to say that almost alone among contemporary political philosophers, I have little interest in advocating redistribution...
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM
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avishaybsg.bsky.social
I feel very seen by those opening paragraphs
November 6, 2025 at 6:03 PM
A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill
I don’t like calling attention to my first-order political views, but it is fair to say that almost alone among contemporary political philosophers, I have little interest in advocating redistribution...
open.substack.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
On the function of Woke Censoriousness and Lippmann's truth-apt defense of freedom of speech.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the function of Woke Censoriousness and Lippmann's truth-apt defense of freedom of speech.
During the past few decades, one politically savvy move of the enemies of liberty has been to use a relatively absolutist notion of freedom of speech — grounded in a Millian interpretation of the Firs...
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:47 PM
On the function of Woke Censoriousness and Lippmann's truth-apt defense of freedom of speech.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the function of Woke Censoriousness and Lippmann's truth-apt defense of freedom of speech.
During the past few decades, one politically savvy move of the enemies of liberty has been to use a relatively absolutist notion of freedom of speech — grounded in a Millian interpretation of the Firs...
open.substack.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:47 PM
With the philosophical Left so warmly embracing Adam Smith's TMS, my work here is almost done on Earth. The next step is getting them to embrace books IV and V of Wealth of Nations.
HT @lastpositivist.bsky.social
leftofphilosophy.bsky.social What's Left of Philosophy @leftofphilosophy.bsky.social · 7d
new episode out now! we talk about Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, which is a sophisticated and nuanced account of approbation, justice, and why you get the ick when someone doesn't appreciate a movie you really like. it's great actually. www.patreon.com/posts/123-ad...
123 | Adam Smith and the Lessons of Sympathy | What's Left of Philosophy
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November 5, 2025 at 8:01 PM
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On Kierkegaard's Climacus' criticism of Spinoza open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Kierkegaard's Climacus criticism of Spinoza
In chapter III of Kierkegaard’s (1844) Philosophical Crumbs (or Philosophical Fragments), published under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus (but with Kierkegaard listed as publisher on the title page), there is a very long footnote directed against Spinoza.
open.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
On Kierkegaard's Climacus' criticism of Spinoza open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Kierkegaard's Climacus criticism of Spinoza
In chapter III of Kierkegaard’s (1844) Philosophical Crumbs (or Philosophical Fragments), published under the pseudonym Johannes Climacus (but with Kierkegaard listed as publisher on the title page), there is a very long footnote directed against Spinoza.
open.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 10:25 PM
November 4, 2025 at 8:33 PM
The Mandate of Heaven and a Public Ideology in Walter Lippmann
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The Mandate of Heaven and a Public Ideology in Walter Lippmann
Because Cyril Hédoin published a kind of book review (here) of a biography of Walter Lippmann (1889 – 1974).
open.substack.com
November 3, 2025 at 7:13 PM
One amusing feature of the liberal dissing reformers of the modern university, is that they all invoke a new social contract.
#ohjack
November 2, 2025 at 8:41 PM