A discussion concerning something unfortunate that happened to me regarding an attempt at an academic discussion of arguments about abortion is here in the Daily Nous:

Arguments, Conclusions, and the Policies of Religious Academic Journals

Substack

Since everyone is doing it, I created a Substack here:

https://nathannobis.substack.com

I reposted posted this in a more accessible manner here.

Improving Academic Writing

Jonathan Bennett & Samuel Gorovitz

Teaching Philosophy 20 (2):105-120 (1997)   Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

Academic writing, even in prestigious journals, is frequently ugly and arduous. The writing in academic philosophy is no exception, especially given philosophers’ tendency to overlook prose and to focus exclusively on philosophical content. This paper argues that good prose matters for moral, prudential, and philosophical reasons. After glossing these reasons, the authors offer advice, born of experience, to academic writers who want to achieve clear, effective prose. Their advice includes how to improve sentence structure (e.g. eliminate undue repetition and forms of “to be,” be careful with comma use, evaluate sentences by reading them aloud), global considerations (e.g. use technical notation cautiously, avoid prose in footnotes, read and report opponents’ views with charity), how to practice reiterating the same point in different words (e.g. play language games likes crossword puzzles, read non-academic prose, aim to communicate one’s point succinctly), and the suggestion to take prose seriously in the evaluation of student work.

After Ten Years: An Account at the Turn of the Year 1942–1943 By Dietrich Bonhoeffer

So maybe 9 months ago, by a bit of an accident I learned of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's writing on "stupidity." One of the first things I found was a neat video on the topic:

Bonhoeffer lived (and died) during the time of the Nazis and he had profound insights about how "stupidity" contributed to that evil. His observations are VERY relevant to much of what's going on today.

I have found the standard translation of his essay that addresses this not very readable, at least for me. So I asked ChatGPT to make a more readable translation. (I suppose I could find the original German and ask it to translate that, to see what happens). Getting it to do this has been a struggle.

But the file is here; on the left is the new translation; on the right is the old.

I haven't read this yet; I don't know if it's an improvement or not. But if anyone happens to want to read this AND maybe update the "new" translation if you think it needs it, let me know and I'll give you better access to the file.

After Ten Years: An Account at the Turn of the Year 1942–1943

By Dietrich Bonhoeffer, adapted for clarity and readability; fully detailed, in modern, readable English 

Comments

Someone told me about this. I didn't learn of this directly from the author, unfortunately. Some might find this interesting. Here are some comments on it, in the text, at ###

A Critique of Nathan Nobis's Subjectivism Entry on 1000-Word Philosophy

Lance S. Bush
Jul 31, 2025