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James Green-Armytage Notebook writings and Essays
This giant document consists of excerpts from my journal, from around age 14 to age 24. I don't exactly have them here because I think that they're the most brilliant or sophisticated philosophical writings of all time, or anything like that. Rather, I think that there's something nice about sharing these kinds of thoughts with other people. This is more like a record or a story of personal discovery than a systematic or coherent exposition. I may not even agree with all of the ideas on this page, but at one time I found them inspiring, illuminating. I hope that some of the excitement of that discovery still comes through. Even if something has been true for a long time, it is made new again whenever a new person discovers it.
Essays and semi-essays: College Admissions Essay, January 1999 Intended to be a complete statement of my philosophy up to the time it was written, at age 18 in the middle of my year off after high school. I put a lot of effort and care into this essay.
Metaphysics Paper, December 1999 My last paper for metaphysics class, in my first term at college. Extremely condensed writing style. Four sections entitled mind, experience, life, and freedom.
Existentialism Paper, April 2000 My last paper for existentialism class, in my second term at college. Basically journal excerpts arranged into thematic categories. Very passionate writing.
Tassajara Journal, summer 2000 I spent the summer of 2000 at a Soto zen monastery in the Los Padres mountains of California. These were my thoughts at the time, which were heavily influenced by the American version of zen Buddhism.
Political Ideas, spring 2001 Basically just a bullet-point list of political and economic policies which I supported at the time. Some of the ideas are more original than others.
Epistemology Paper, April 2003 My last paper for epistemology class, during my senior year at college. Less fragmentary and perhaps more reader-friendly than most of the other essays, it attempts to lay out a well-balanced epistemological position.
Two philosophical letters: June-August 2004 Not too much here, actually. Basically a couple letters espousing a kind of organic, existentialist brand of utilitarianism, and defending them against nihilistic skepticism.
Statement of Purpose, December 2004 The prototype statement of purpose written for admission into economics graduate programs. In many ways, this is the "political ideas" brought up to date. Anyway, I likes it.
Summary diagram of economic/political ideas, December 2005 This is a sort of graphical summary of political/economic ideas. I'm sure that it looks a bit wacky, what with all the arrows and different colors. In case anyone is wondering, the issues in red are ones that I still feel that I don't understand very well, the issues in green are ones that I feel fairly sure about and would be comfortable implementing in the near future. The blue ones are somewhere in the middle.
Goals and Policies, summer 2006 This was an attempt to better organize and express my thoughts about the political-economic goals that I am most interested in, and some policies that might help to achieve these goals. It could certainly use an update by now, but so far I've been just a bit too busy for that.
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