Observations of October 23rd, 2021

Six years ago, these two short essays (along with Revel’s La Connaissance Inutile) started my brief but intense journey into political philosophy. Admittedly, Brennan and his following work had a lot more influence on me than Cohen.

For a couple of years, I was deeply interested in it and invested a considerable amount of time reading the classics, attending conferences when possible, debating (especially with a few beers on me), etc. Rereading these made me wonder why I stopped doing so since the questions still fascinate me: how should we coordinate to live together? Who gets what? Who decides so?

I believe the answer lies largely in the debating part. Ironically, it was also the most fun. It can hardly get any better than being social and having an intellectual challenge at the same time. However, it is hard to find people who: (1) are interested in political philosophy but not emotionally attached to their political ideas, (2) are willing to entertain a thought without accepting it (kudos if you get the reference) or being outraged. I am no robot; I do know I was guilty of those things at times too.

Politics is also more related to coordination rather than generation. I have grown way more interested in fields with creation at their core. At the moment, I find building more beautiful than managing.