What a fantastic reflection and a serious marathon of reading.
what you wrote is how tightly the series ties moral philosophy to concrete narrative stakes. The point about identity is especially sharp. These characters are not just discovering who they are. They are discovering which stories about themselves are useful fictions and which are evasions. That maps very closely onto real life. Most of us live inside some mix of both and only stress reveals which is which.
On dignity I like that you framed it in Smithean terms. The series seems to underline something Adam Smith only hints at. It is not just that we want to be lovely. It is that our daily work is the main training ground for becoming so.
Your game theoretic angle on sacrifice is also valuable. It links virtue and strategy instead of treating them as separate domains. The survival of the sacrificers almost reads like the author insisting that ordered worlds can still be merciful ones.
What a fantastic reflection and a serious marathon of reading.
what you wrote is how tightly the series ties moral philosophy to concrete narrative stakes. The point about identity is especially sharp. These characters are not just discovering who they are. They are discovering which stories about themselves are useful fictions and which are evasions. That maps very closely onto real life. Most of us live inside some mix of both and only stress reveals which is which.
On dignity I like that you framed it in Smithean terms. The series seems to underline something Adam Smith only hints at. It is not just that we want to be lovely. It is that our daily work is the main training ground for becoming so.
Your game theoretic angle on sacrifice is also valuable. It links virtue and strategy instead of treating them as separate domains. The survival of the sacrificers almost reads like the author insisting that ordered worlds can still be merciful ones.