there and back again

I skipped most of the political theory/philosophy conference this weekend, but I did attend most of the receptions, and hung out with the law and philosophy crowd. Usually, philosophers make me feel nervous, out of my league, and intellectually inferior, and usually not by design. This was a more pleasant than usual bunch, and I was pleased to discover I could participate in most of the conversations, even if I haven't read all of the foundational texts.

Lesson learned here was that fear of a thing does not justify avoidance of a thing, and that I shouldn't be totally afraid to join intellectual conversations for fear of sounding ignorant (always possible, even for subject areas in which I have expertise) or stupid (always possible, even for subject areas in which I have expertise). It was actually a lot of fun learning about morphing series, ethics, consequentialism, etc. And it was even more fun talking to the people at the conference. Good times.