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.

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...

Shklar on the function of Academic/Scholarly Activism open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

I feel very seen by those opening paragraphs

A Centrist tells fellow centrists to Chill open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

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. open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

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

On Kierkegaard's Climacus' criticism of Spinoza open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

On Kierkegaard's Climacus' criticism of Spinoza open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

The Mandate of Heaven and a Public Ideology in Walter Lippmann open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

One amusing feature of the liberal dissing reformers of the modern university, is that they all invoke a new social contract. #ohjack

This is really a very lucid and sophisticated (short) book that with relatively limited data reaches fascinating diagnoses. Because it pisses on everyone's favorite explanations it never had much popular uptake. But worth thinking about.

Het was een eer deel te mogen nemen aan de NPO1 uitslagenavond en samen met mijn academic buddy @tomwgvdmeer.bsky.social aan de desk te zitten. Maar zonder ons datateam @eelcoharteveld.bsky.social @twanhuijsmans.bsky.social @emilymiltenburg.bsky.social en Cato waren wij echter nergens geweest.

My quick-read of the Dutch election result is this: Wilders may well end up with most votes. But he lost seats to other far right parties. So the far and extreme right remains effectively at ca 25% of the vote. The better news is that the centrist populists who flirted with far right all lost. 1/2

On Our Post-Constitutional Moment, PT 5; Some Wilson; some Ostrom, and the Threat of Despotism open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

Sharing to read later.

This is actually not exactly right. It is uber-proportional with one electoral district, but administratively it is divided in 19 circles which allows for modestly different party-lists in different regions.:) [But I don't recall any recent party taking advantage of that.]

On Our Post-Constitutional Moment, PT 5; Some Wilson; some Ostrom, and the Threat of Despotism open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

"on my view liberalism was founded by Adam Smith and in his wake Constant and Bentham (as well as Humboldt and Grouchy) as a reaction to Locke’s influence on the political theory of mercantilism and nationalist imperialism that in the late eighteenth century mutated into Bonapartism, too.'

I am visiting Houston later this week

On Lippmann and Oakeshott on the art of governing well; with some Bergson and Foucault thrown in Shout out to @jcherniss.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

This works reasonably well in a PR system not in winner take all first past the post system.

I don't mean this as criticism...but in reading Deleuze & Guattari one does suspect they were using drugs during multiple drafts.

I will toast the cunning of history if the bail-out of Argentina generates constitutional government and enduring growth.

Lippmann, Rawls, Locke and the Social Contract as Public Philosophy open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

Last page of Lippman's The Public Philosophy. (There are more references to mandate of heaven and confucius in it.) It's neat idea, that ideas/ideology can also have a mandate of heaven.

Its amazing what sorts of soft cowards so many of our elites have turned out to be

If I were running the DNC, there would be Democratic Party sponsored food relief banks across the country right now that specifically welcomed anyone regardless of party affiliation. Along with the food, there could be voter registration and links to runforsomething.net

Late Lippmann is surprisingly Woke

Here are my worst socio-political thoughts. I hope I am not really the person who believes these things. sootyempiric.blogspot.com/2025/10/misa...

I enjoyed that pro-free-trade ad from the Ontario government aired during the world series. Showing more spine than American business.

I had a great time during my visit to LSU, but I was taken aback by the fact that in order to log onto eduroam -- the greatest institution invented since petalism in ancient Syracuse -- was behind a local guest login with local password page. #dontkeepdoomsdaymachinesecret

I like this a lot. It reminds me that ultimately what I love in the stoics and what I love in Smith is much the same, which for me at least somewhat licenses a kind of self love that I'd be otherwise horrified to even consider. (Not saying I've yet achieved it!) I also prefer psychologised Kant fwiw

The New Adam Smith debate: On the Flatteners vs the Inflaters open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

It's something @nescio13.bsky.social called early - early modern absolute monarchists running mercantalist regimes is the best historical analogue.

I am kind of astonished at how muted the reaction has been so far in a country were people try to get, like, gas stations declared as historic landmarks. Can we at least get Mike Johnson on camera claiming he hasn’t seen these pictures? Or doesn’t know where or what the White House is?

Kant on Righteous Spinoza, and some Adam Smith open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

Okay, this slide may not be very useful. Artist: Jack Stetter

During a world series game, I just watched a 30 second pro free-trade commercial paid for by the government of Ontario in favor of free trade. The voice over was a speech by Ronald Reagan. It's been puzzling to me that American businesses have not been running (creative versions of) ads like this.

On Graeber on Play as Constitutive of Freedom with notes on Spencer and Plato. open.substack.com/pub/digressi...

On Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Addison and, yes, the origin of the balanced constitution open.substack.com/pub/digressi...