Short on time but burning to know why Moore seems oblivious to the question-begging nature of his 'proof' of an external world? Well, look no further. Complete with a high-res image of archival material I went through way too much trouble to get. newworkinphilosophy.substack.com/p/louis-doul...
It is with great professional satisfaction that I accept a tenure-track faculty position in philosophy at Providence College, starting August 2026! I’ve been imagining this moment for over a decade. 🥺
1/5
#philsky #philosophy
I wrote a short essay about a disagreement I recently had with a friend.
thefulcrum.us/civic-engage...
Desert kit fox
Course readers are back in style
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...
"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...
The author is John Koethe. This might be of interest @dailynous.com, @brianleiter.bsky.social, @nescio13.bsky.social
Here’s the best poem ever written about John Rawls.
There’s a forthcoming collection on Pascal, edited by Roger Ariew and Yuval Avnur.
How could you not get to First Philosophy?
I really enjoyed your recent episode on *The Cheese and the Worms*, by the way.
Not quite
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
We are all our own classic New Yorker cover cartoon...
(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.”
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...
Congratulations, Louis!
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)
“Never trust anyone”
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.)
I once owned a copy of the real fake book. Seriously. halleonard-coverimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wl/00240221-...
youtu.be/JPKKtlpenvI?...
Good example! There are lots of “Moorean”-esque contrasts drawn in the history of skepticism. I recall that Augustine, in Contra Academicos, is talking about how skeptics think reasoning or perception is obscure, but then points out that it’s clear we are not insects!
What is a question in philosophy where, the more you read and think, the deeper it seems?
