Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Sep 1

Desert kit fox

Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Aug 29

Course readers are back in style

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Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne

Andrew M. Bailey @resistance.money · Aug 25

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...

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

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Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne

Justin Weinberg @dailynous.com · Aug 25

"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

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Aug 25

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...

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

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Apr 23

The author is John Koethe. This might be of interest @dailynous.com, @brianleiter.bsky.social, @nescio13.bsky.social

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Apr 23

Here’s the best poem ever written about John Rawls.

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Mar 20

There’s a forthcoming collection on Pascal, edited by Roger Ariew and Yuval Avnur.

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Mar 11

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gell-Ma...

Gell-Mann amnesia effect - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Feb 11

How could you not get to First Philosophy?

I really enjoyed your recent episode on *The Cheese and the Worms*, by the way.

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Feb 4

Not quite

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Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne

Eric Brown @sophisteuein.bsky.social · Feb 4

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…”

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Feb 3

Everybody chill out and take an epistemology pill

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Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne

David Dunning @daviddunning6.bsky.social · Feb 1

We are all our own classic New Yorker cover cartoon...

(psst, those younger can google Saul Steinberg, 9th avenue, New Yorker)

Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Feb 1

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.”

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Feb 1

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.”

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 26

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...

Opinion | The Long Shadow of Fraud in Alzheimer’s Research (Gift Article)

Fraud in research needs to end.

www.nytimes.com

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 24

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 22

Congratulations, Louis!

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Reposted by Nathan Ballantyne

Louis Doulas @louisdoulas.bsky.social · Jan 22

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

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 14

“Philosophy is the conflict between the obvious and the obvious.” – Renford Bambrough (1926–99)

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 12

“Never trust anyone”

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 12

That’s not surprising to hear. Do you think some of the social/political epistemology is relatively “traditional” at its core but has been packaged for PR purposes? (E.g., a discussion of internalism/externalism might be framed with examples drawn from political life.)

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 12

I once owned a copy of the real fake book. Seriously. halleonard-coverimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wl/00240221-...

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Nathan Ballantyne @nathanballantyne.bsky.social · Jan 11

youtu.be/JPKKtlpenvI?...

Tapestry In Sound (Live In Seattle / 1965)

YouTube video by John Coltrane - Topic

youtu.be