Nathan Goodman

Call for Papers Don Lavoie’s Enduring Scholarly Legacy Guest Editor, Nathan Goodman Don Lavoie (1951–2001) made vital contributions to the modern research program in Austrianeconomics. His book Rivalry …

If you have a paper you're looking to write on these issues, please submit an abstract to the special issue I'm editing on Don Lavoie's enduring scholarly legacy: cosmosandtaxis.org/submissions/...

We need people who will continue to advance the radical and emancipatory ideas of Don Lavoie.

His work showed the power of bottom-up discovery and the dangers of top-down power.

Very excited for @rechelon.bsky.social's new book!

Reading the intro chapter gives a good overview of the overall project.

Cop City domestic terrorism defendant seeks dismissal over delays Cop City domestic terrorism charge challenged over 2.5-year delay. Defense argues rights violation as unindicted case blocks law career.

Nearly 2.5 years later, the 'Cop City' domestic terrorism case remains in legal limbo. Jamie Marsicano, one of over 40 people charged with domestic terrorism, is fighting for dismissal, arguing the delay violates their rights.

inshallah we can get a 2nd edition of Economic Planning What Is Left that actually reaches the left

Call for Papers Don Lavoie’s Enduring Scholarly Legacy Guest Editor, Nathan Goodman Don Lavoie (1951–2001) made vital contributions to the modern research program in Austrianeconomics. His book Rivalry …

Absolutely! By the way, you should consider submitting something to the special issue I'm editing on Lavoie's legacy!
cosmosandtaxis.org/submissions/...

This part of the thread gives an idea of how Will thinks about Sokal. bsky.app/profile/rech...

Yes, the Sokal affair is discussed quite a bit in the book. Chapter 3 is about the Sokal hoax itself, and there's other discussion of Sokal throughout the book.

You might find this sample chapter interesting: store.c4ss.org/wp-content/u...

YouTube video by Liberal Currents Strange Bedfellows

All-timer talk with @aaronrosspowell.com and @sjshancoxli.liberalcurrents.com, a libertarian and a progressive who've both become more nuanced with time. Aaron's diagnosis of (and remedy for) fusionism is necessary listening for libertarian and non-libertarian alike.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cQv...

This was an instant purchase for me. Gillis is wicked smart, always philosophically deep and innovative (even when I ultimately disagree), and embodies the kind of 200-proof radicalism it is fruitful for everyone who cares about political ideas to engage with.

Today, one faction of reactionaries denounce leftists as enemies of science, while another faction of reactionaries happily embrace that same role, attacking science as totalitarian. Words like “postmodernism” and “relativism” get thrown about with fervor but little clarity, echoes of a conflict from decades ago. Is there actually a physical world and can we know anything about it? Did academics on the left influence “post-truth” politics on the right? How could supposed defenders of “science” get lost in a mire of transphobia?

Hey, I wrote a book.

Did The Science Wars Take Place?

Covers the history and philosophy of a fight in the 80s & 90s between some postmodernists and scientists, with an eye to anarchist interests and lasting political influences among the far-right.

Pre-order here: store.c4ss.org/index.php/pr...

Law and Border - Niskanen Center The rule of law and risk of lawlessness In public law and politics, the core meaning of the rule of law is this: that the executive branch of the government, in control of the violent agencies of stat...

Our conversation builds on an essay that @jacobtlevy.bsky.social wrote for @niskanencenter.bsky.social back in 2018.

Sadly, it's more relevant now than ever.
www.niskanencenter.org/law-and-bord...

Jacob T. Levy on Tensions Between Immigration Control and the Rule of Law On this episode, Nathan Goodman interviews political theorist Jacob Levy about the rule of law and its tensions with mo

I recently spoke with @jacobtlevy.bsky.social about tensions between immigration control and the rule of law.

The rule of law is valuable precisely as a means to constrain state violence. Immigration control undermines those constraints on coercive power.

Listen: www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram...

Jacob T. Levy on Tensions Between Immigration Control and the Rule of Law On this episode, Nathan Goodman interviews political theorist Jacob Levy about the rule of law and its tensions with mo

New podcast: in conversation with @nathanpgoodman.bsky.social about immigration control and the rule of law.

www.mercatus.org/hayekprogram...

On Polycentrism and the New Classical Liberalism. Neoliberalism is dead; Long live Neoliberalism!, pt 1. Fairly or not, neo-liberalism (and its cousin new public management) ended up being associated with monopolistic privatization, the Financial Crisis and the Great Recession, Austerity, and Pinochet.

On Polycentrism and the New Classical Liberalism. Neoliberalism is dead; Long live Neoliberalism!, pt 1.
open.substack.com/pub/digressi...
with a shout out to @mattzwolinski.bsky.social @vladtarko.bsky.social, @drnickcowen.bsky.social

Highly recommend spending your mornings reading @nescio13.bsky.social’s and @himself.bsky.social’s substance instead of doomscrolling

Not Everything Is an Emergency Courts should check the use of presidential power in taking extraordinary measures to address routine problems.

My new @thedispatchmedia.bsky.social article making case for strong judicial review of executive invocations of extraordinary emergency powers. This gift link should work better than the one posted before: tinyurl.com/kvhhpuz7

ReImagining Liberty Listen to ReImagining Liberty wherever you get your podcasts!

Hi to my new followers. If you enjoy what I write here, you'll probably also enjoy ReImagining Liberty, my podcast mapping out what the future of radical liberalism might look like, and how we can achieve it. episodes.fm/1614436300

Neon Liberalism #36: Strange Bedfellows In recent years, a number of prominent right-wingers have moved left dramatically. In particular, a surprising number of libertarians have abandoned their "fusionist" association with the Republican P...

Neon Liberalism #36: In recent years, a number of prominent right-wingers have moved left dramatically. A surprising number of libertarians have abandoned their "fusionist" association with the Republican Party, and become more closely affiliated with the progressive movement. How did this happen?

Faculty Support of George Mason’s President Draws Federal Investigation

Faculty who wrote to defend their president and object to a DOJ investigation of their university...are now being investigated by the DOJ.
The most banal defense of free speech and academic freedom will trigger the full wrath of the US government now.
www.nytimes.com/2025/07/28/u...

Fearless Benjamin: The Quaker Dwarf Who Fought Slavery A beautifully illustrated children's book on the life of Benjamin Lay, a courageous little person who stood tall against oppression.

Friends – if you donate $150 to PM Press as it publishes our children’s book, *Fearless Benjamin*, we will send you signed copies of that book, my biography of Lay, the play I wrote with Naomi Wallace, and the graphic novel I created with David Lester, 4 books!
www.kickstarter.com/projects/ww3...

You Went to a Drag Show—Now the State of Florida Wants Your Name EFF has long warned about this kind of mission creep: where a law or policy supposedly aimed at public safety is turned into a tool for political retaliation or mass surveillance. Going to a drag show...

This is exactly why every bookstore should be undertaking a comprehensive review of data collection and storage. Cops and politicians can't seize what you don't have.

PRE ORDERS PRE ORDERS Gillis' book on the science wars will be available soon!!!!

@nathanpgoodman.bsky.social , Chris Coyne, Andre Quintas on how the state's high modernist demand for legibility worsens political capitalism.

ICE Chasers: Community Response to ICE raids and arrests Grassroots 'ICE Chasers' track immigration raids and arrests in real time. Learn how this rapid response team protects residents.

Meet the ICE Chasers: the rapid response team keeping communities informed on ICE sightings

Ways of Seeing the World: Legibility in Alternative Institutional Settings GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 25-17 29 Pages Posted: 19 May 2025 Last revised: 27 Jun 2025 Christopher J. Coyne George Mason University - Department of Economics Nathan P. Goodman George Mason University - Mercatus Center André Quintas George Mason University Date Written: May 01, 2025 Abstract Legibility refers to the ability of people to make sense of the world. In Seeing Like a State, James Scott (1998) employs this concept to analyze efforts by governments to make the world legible through top-down efforts of standardization and control. State efforts to impose order often generate harms because they lack access to local experiential knowledge (mētis). How, then, can people make sense of the complexities of the world? This paper explores the answer to this question by considering ways of making the world legible across institutional contexts. After examining Scott's critique of state-imposed high modernism, we consider two alternative forms of legibility-the market process and local community. In doing so, we engage the criticism that markets can also be a form of imposition and control. We highlight the importance of market contestability as a way of encouraging the use of local knowledge. Finally, we argue that political capitalism makes market outcomes more akin to state-led high modernism, impeding desirable complementarities between market discovery and mētis. Keywords: high modernism, legibility, markets, mētis, techne, political capitalism, James Scott Suggested Citation: Coyne, Christopher J. and Goodman, Nathan and Quintas, André, Ways of Seeing the World: Legibility in Alternative Institutional Settings (May 01, 2025). GMU Working Paper in Economics No. 25-17, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5256362 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5256362

An ungated working paper version is available at @ssrn.bsky.social: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....

European Economic Review Volume 178, September 2025, 105116 European Economic Review Ways of seeing the world: Legibility in alternative institutional settings Author links open overlay panel Christopher J. Coyne a , Nathan Goodman b , André Quintas a Show more Add to Mendeley Share Cite https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2025.105116 Get rights and content Abstract Legibility refers to the ability of people to make sense of the world. In Seeing Like a State, James Scott (1998) employs this concept to analyze efforts by governments to make the world legible through top-down efforts of standardization and control. State efforts to impose order often generate harms because they lack access to local experiential knowledge (mētis). How, then, can people make sense of the complexities of the world? This paper explores the answer to this question by considering ways of making the world legible across institutional contexts. After examining Scott’s critique of state-imposed high modernism, we consider two alternative forms of legibility—the market process and local community. In doing so, we engage the criticism that markets can also be a form of imposition and control. We highlight the importance of market contestability as a way of encouraging the use of local knowledge. Finally, we argue that political capitalism makes market outcomes more akin to state-led high modernism, impeding desirable complementarities between market discovery and mētis.

In the European Economic Review, Chris Coyne, @andrequintas.bsky.social & I build on James C. Scott's book "Seeing Like a State." We examine legibility and the use of knowledge across alternative institutional settings, including states, markets, & communities.

Story: A deported British man says in a new Human Rights Watch report that he and other detainees at a Miami detention center were shackled and forced to eat without their hands, kneeling on their knees “like dogs” reason.com/2025/07/21/r...

Abundance is a nonfiction book by Ezra Klein and Derek Thompson published by Avid Reader Press

13. Abundance by @ezraklein.bsky.social & @dkthomp.bsky.social

Not as controversial as “the discourse” implies. Good overview of regressive ways local, state, & federal regulations operate especially if you have progressive goals. But I’m skeptical state capacity can be meaningfully depoliticized.

Latest w @emmamashford.bsky.social on her forthcoming book on grand strategy, how to embrace multipolarity, spheres of influence, why alliances shouldn't be sacred, economic statecraft, bureaucratic inertia, the problem of temptation, & more. Listen! t.co/nWfty75TQR