Hypatia was killed in Alexandria for being a woman who taught philosophy publicly. I was silenced for being a woman who wrote theology. These are not private matters.
The examined life is sometimes described as an interior project — a philosophical practice of honest self-inquiry. This is true. But the examined self, pushed far enough, reaches conclusions that have external implications. You cannot examine your life honestly and remain indifferent to the conditions that shape other lives. The inquiry that stops at personal flourishing has not gone far enough.
I wrote about justice because I could not not. Not from ideology — I had little patience for ideology — but from the simple observation that the same reason that demands I think clearly about my own life demands that I think clearly about what surrounds it. The suffering of others is data. It requires explanation. The explanations, if you follow them honestly, lead somewhere.
The most politically dangerous thing I ever did was simply ask questions until I reached conclusions. The authorities understood this better than most intellectuals do: that honest inquiry and comfortable injustice are not compatible in the long run.
What would you conclude, if you followed your honest questions to their ends?