CONNING OURSELVES: PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY AS RATIONALIZATION

Arthur Phillips, The Tragedy of Arthur: A Novel (New York: Random House, 2011) ("What was I stealing? That day, twenty-eight years old, I would have self-righteously said, 'Happiness,' snatched from corporate dullardry . . . Later, thirty-seven years old, I would, self-glorifying, have said I was stealing my 'better self' away, becoming a novelist, chasing destiny . . . Now, forty-six, I would, slightly more self-aware, say that I was stealing away from adult responsibility because it hadn't yet proven to me its superiority over youthful irresponsibility . . . Over the years, I have pulled out all these meanings as needed to garb my naked actions. Philosophy is inclination dressed in a toga." Id. at 102-103.).