Digressionsimpressions
@nescio13.bsky.social
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
https://digressionsimpressions.substack.com/publish
On Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith on Imperialism, and its effects.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith on Imperialism, and its effects.
Unlike many Left critics of capitalism and liberalism, Karl Polanyi does not deform liberalism by pretending that either capitalism or liberalism is intrinsically imperialist, “contrary to popular pre...
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 12:15 PM
On Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith on Imperialism, and its effects.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
PPE GRANT opportunities!!!
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
PPE GRANT opportunities!!!
Geoff Sayre-McCord (UNC) asked me to circulate the following.
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 4:26 PM
PPE GRANT opportunities!!!
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
A Digressive, Digression on Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
A Digressive, Digression on Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith
In today’s post I have two aims: first, I point to an interesting passage in Karl Polanyi (1886 – 1964)’s The Great Transformation. Second, I want to share with you why I find him such a grating autho...
open.substack.com
December 8, 2025 at 12:12 PM
A Digressive, Digression on Karl Polanyi and Adam Smith
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
I was asked to referee a paper for a major journal that seems to engage with my work in substantive fashion. (That's a flutter of excitement.) All the citations to my 'work' are hallucinatory in character.; and quite a few other invented citations.
Meh. meh. meh.
#upsideidonthavetowriteareport
Meh. meh. meh.
#upsideidonthavetowriteareport
December 7, 2025 at 10:11 PM
I was asked to referee a paper for a major journal that seems to engage with my work in substantive fashion. (That's a flutter of excitement.) All the citations to my 'work' are hallucinatory in character.; and quite a few other invented citations.
Meh. meh. meh.
#upsideidonthavetowriteareport
Meh. meh. meh.
#upsideidonthavetowriteareport
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy)
Earlier in the week I discussed how at the start of the twentieth century, Adam Smith was seen as one of the key founders of the English liberal tradition that combined the ‘Manchester’ school of Cobd...
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy)
Earlier in the week I discussed how at the start of the twentieth century, Adam Smith was seen as one of the key founders of the English liberal tradition that combined the ‘Manchester’ school of Cobd...
open.substack.com
December 5, 2025 at 1:16 PM
The De-politicization and naturalization of twentieth Century Adam Smith (traced to Halévy) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
As I noted yesterday, Josh Chernish nudged me into re-reading Isaiah Berlin’s (1972) “The Originality of Machiavelli” reprinted in Against the Current.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 11:24 AM
On Berlin's reading of Bacon on Machiavelli--with some excitement over Lucian.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
@jcherniss.bsky.social
My newest pet peeve is people that whistle at airport departure waiting areas
December 4, 2025 at 10:52 AM
My newest pet peeve is people that whistle at airport departure waiting areas
One thing I never thought I would say as a young man is that being invited back to give a colloquium in a department that once employed you is surprisingly gratifying.
#gettingold
#notatransformativeexperiencebutstillweird
#gettingold
#notatransformativeexperiencebutstillweird
December 3, 2025 at 7:50 PM
One thing I never thought I would say as a young man is that being invited back to give a colloquium in a department that once employed you is surprisingly gratifying.
#gettingold
#notatransformativeexperiencebutstillweird
#gettingold
#notatransformativeexperiencebutstillweird
old maxim: at some point the power to pardon just undermines the rule of law altogether
December 3, 2025 at 6:55 PM
old maxim: at some point the power to pardon just undermines the rule of law altogether
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
On Montesquieu and Spinozism -Eric Schliesser certainly knows his Spinoza. open.substack.com/pub/digressi.... Finding out that you are Spinozist without realising it.
On Montesquieu and Spinozism
In 1725, Montesquieu started on a text, The Treatise on Duties, that was never published.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 3:15 PM
On Montesquieu and Spinozism -Eric Schliesser certainly knows his Spinoza. open.substack.com/pub/digressi.... Finding out that you are Spinozist without realising it.
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
Die Wahl in den Niederlanden brachte der linksliberalen #D66 einen historischen Sieg. Doch dahinter steht ein Land zwischen Nativismus, schwacher Linker und bedrängter Mitte. Was das für Europas Liberalismus heißt, analysiert Eric Schliesser.
Liberaler Sieg in Zeiten der Krise - Was die niederländische Wahl für den europäischen Liberalismus bedeutet
Die niederländischen Wahlen brachten der linksliberalen D66 einen historischen Sieg – doch dahinter steht ein Land im Spannungsfeld zwischen nativistischen Tendenzen, geschwächter Linker und einer unt...
libmod.de
November 19, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Die Wahl in den Niederlanden brachte der linksliberalen #D66 einen historischen Sieg. Doch dahinter steht ein Land zwischen Nativismus, schwacher Linker und bedrängter Mitte. Was das für Europas Liberalismus heißt, analysiert Eric Schliesser.
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
Second
One thing I often think about myself and the narrow circle of people I approve of is that we are the perfect synthesis of the two cultures. Tbh not really me but definitely the people I approve of.
one of the reasons that the STEM-humanitiies culture war is stupid is that there's a lot of interesting stuff there at the intersection of the two. like it's very sociologically interesting the way that programming languages are maintained, propagated, and evolve.
December 3, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Second
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory.
John P.
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:46 PM
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory.
John P.
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 12:46 PM
On the Pull of Transitional Despotism on the Plebeian Left. McCormick and Isaiah Berlin on Machiavelli, Agathocles & Glory (with a shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social) open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Das Adam Smith Problem is a bit like the purported problem of making systematic Prince and Discourses, and (for the provocative thesis) springs from the same roots.
December 2, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Das Adam Smith Problem is a bit like the purported problem of making systematic Prince and Discourses, and (for the provocative thesis) springs from the same roots.
Arrive for Carnap, stay for Milton’s Satan!
One of the best things Paradise Lost is take seriously the fact that pre-fall Adam/Eve had to actually be admirable people and present their reasoning incredibly sympathetically. It's, in the end, basically the same literary trick pulled more famously with Satan in the same text, but I still love it
A death to think! Confirmed
then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in
bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with
him all deaths
I could endure, without him
live no life.
So saying, from the tree her
step she turned;
IX, 830-834
then I resolve,
Adam shall share with me in
bliss or woe:
So dear I love him, that with
him all deaths
I could endure, without him
live no life.
So saying, from the tree her
step she turned;
IX, 830-834
December 2, 2025 at 6:07 PM
Arrive for Carnap, stay for Milton’s Satan!
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
BTW, if anyone can ever find me a copy of the scarf that Khan wears, that blue around the neck that fades to oil and shadow, LET ME KNOW.
December 2, 2025 at 7:06 AM
BTW, if anyone can ever find me a copy of the scarf that Khan wears, that blue around the neck that fades to oil and shadow, LET ME KNOW.
Anyone know of any critical, scholarly work on left versions of transitional dictatorship?
#asking4anantirevolutionary
#asking4anantirevolutionary
December 2, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Anyone know of any critical, scholarly work on left versions of transitional dictatorship?
#asking4anantirevolutionary
#asking4anantirevolutionary
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
What Paul is describing is scandalous. But I am also weirdly cheered up by seeing pics of him since the accident. So much willpower, such determination to rebuild a meaningful life. Unchanged is his ridiculous articulacy and humour. His substack is very good too, subscribe!
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
‘I wish I could say I kept my cool’: my maddening experience with the NHS wheelchair service
The long read: After I was paralysed in a climbing accident, I discovered how inconsiderate, illogical and incompetent many wheelchair providers can be
www.theguardian.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:26 AM
What Paul is describing is scandalous. But I am also weirdly cheered up by seeing pics of him since the accident. So much willpower, such determination to rebuild a meaningful life. Unchanged is his ridiculous articulacy and humour. His substack is very good too, subscribe!
On Montesquieu and Spinozism
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
On Montesquieu and Spinozism
In 1725, Montesquieu started on a text, The Treatise on Duties, that was never published.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 12:44 PM
On Montesquieu and Spinozism
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
Reposted by Digressionsimpressions
Nobody really talks about afro-pessimism any more but I still think this old critique I wrote was correct and it bothers me that it never really got addressed.
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2017/07/afro...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2017/07/afro...
Afro-Pessimism and the Instantiation Thesis
If you've been following debates within cultural studies at all over the past few years you've probably heard about Afro-Pessimism. Being a ...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com
December 1, 2025 at 10:25 AM
Nobody really talks about afro-pessimism any more but I still think this old critique I wrote was correct and it bothers me that it never really got addressed.
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2017/07/afro...
sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2017/07/afro...