kenny

What have I read, watched, listened to, and considered this week? Here's a selection:

Books:

• Tolstoy's War and Peace. I finished! My understanding of Tolstoy's historical philosophy that he details in the second part of the epilogue: there is a constant tension between free will and determinism, but this tension is really a matter of perspective. Viewed in their true depth, historical events appear to be the product of free will. Just like we cannot refute our own ability to raise our hand in any moment, thus showing our own free will, we cannot debate the agency of historical actors when we view them up close. Conversely, events appear inevitable when viewed from afar. Individual actions collapse into trends. Not content with this ambiguity, Tolstoy goes on to call the historian's task (nearly) impossible, at least from a scientific perspective. He asserts that historians cannot give an accurate account of causation because they cannot have complete knowledge of all the smaller events composing each larger one (like the 1812 campaign). A question this brought to my mind: what amount of data would be needed to write a "perfect history"? Likewise, what would that data look like?

• Stephen King's 11/22/63. No progress this week. I put all my energy into Tolstoy.

• Philosophy of Science: A Very Short Introduction by Samir Okasha. No progress this week. Again, I put all my reading time into Tolstoy

Podcasts:

• Nabeel S. Qureshi on Jackson Dahl's Dialectic podcast. I also recommend Nabeel's site--some essays I found valuable were "Advice That Actually Worked for Me" and "Principles", which has me itching to write up my own list. I also enjoyed his "Reflections on Palantir" for an inside look at an effective organization.

• Tyler Cowen on Henry Oliver's Common Reader. I can't get enough of either of these two. This episode convinced me to add John Stuart Mill's Autobiography (and maybe some of his philosophical works) to my ever-growing reading list. Henry just announced that he will be a fellow at the Mercatus Center for the next two years, so I look forward to more collaborations between these two.

Other:

• Apologia Pro Sua Vita on Scott Alexander's Slate Star Codex. Much shorter than Scott's usual posts, but I couldn't resist the following quote: "Just as drugs mysteriously find their own non-fungible money, enjoyable activities mysteriously find their own non-fungible time." There are some things we always manage to find the time/money/energy for.