IV Revision Journal, Part 6

It has been five years since I last made changes to the main text of the philosophy. Since then, I left my job, got a Master’s degree, got a new job, got a house, and got engaged. I have had a lot of changes in my life, and changes bring new perspectives. But through it all, I have never stopped thinking that Individual Valuism was correct. That reminds me of a quote I’ve heard that goes something like this: “If you're not a liberal at 20 then you have no heart; if you're not a conservative at 40 then you have no brain.” I think that’s stupid. I think that if you have real principles, you will keep them throughout your life no matter your age or position. While the core of my convictions has remained the same, I needed to make significant changes to how everything is presented. If you care about the changes, look at the Word file with tracked changes or the summary below:

Most of the changes early in the document concern grammar and tone. I wanted it to seem both casual and professional. I tried to tone down some negative words in the introduction and I wanted to assume nothing. For example, I took out the sentence “The importance of being able to correctly perceive value should be clear.” because a major point of the papers is to not make random declarations of what “should” be true. The first major change was shifting the first paragraph that promotes individual values from the “Fact and Value” section down to the “Ethics” section. It is far better to lay the groundwork of how values exist and why it is reasonable to follow your own values instead of just launching into a declaration that individual values are right because there’s not a better alternative.

The second major change was cutting out most of the section on Government and Economics. That’s three pages of single-spaced content. The biggest reason was that it felt more like rambling commentary and not fundamental ideas of the philosophy. I cut it all down to one paragraph. I like to keep things short. One so that people might actually read it. Two because I believe that fundamental truths are simple. I’m also planning to redesign the website and retouch some of the articles.