A new question?! How does the craftsperson get credit?
(Doesn't it all go to the master strategist?)


Author: Doctor Terence Rajivan Edward
Date: 22 July 2026 (version 2, refined version of video essay, available at: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbFnEIFBsuO/   )

Voltaire apparently said, "Judge a man by his questions." I cannot be so confident that he actually he said that; I am trusting a British comedian, namely Jimmy Carr! Examining the history of essays, one finds that there are periods in which many people treat a certain topic. In this period, everyone is writing about humour - what do people find funny? (Bergson: when man behaves as a mindless machine; Beerbohm: we find it funny when a great or respected person makes a fool of themselves.) In this period, everyone is writing on proverbs andstock expressions. (Russell: for many a proverb there is a proverb that expresses the opposite wisdom; Belloc: the literary writer carefully avoids the stock expression; he has an apt metaphor describing attempts at avoidance: "Hobbledehoys, great wits, and leaders of thought avoid it because it is commonplace. They can be seen waggling from one side of the road to the other in their grotesque efforts to avoid the tag.") A question has occurred to me. Perhaps it has occurred to others, but I have not seen it discussed by any others.

You are skilled or even inspired craftsman in a field - "I don't call the inspired a mere craftsman or craftswoman," you say? - how do you get credit for your work? Doesn't all the credit go to the strategist, who says things like focus here and not there? (Or most of the credit, the esteem, the status? By astute assessors anyway!) In Paris, I have encountered quite a few waitresses who resemble the once popular singer and now fashion designer Victoria Beckham. She was once part of an all-female singing group, The Spice Girls, a group with an ingredient of feminism. I suppose the strategist then said words along the lines of "Victoria, you can do many things. You are a hard-working girl of reasonable talent. But we think there is going to be a big trend for feminist popular singers, so do that." A Victoria Beckham type some years later may be told, "Victoria, you can do many things. You are a hard-working girl of reasonable talent. But we think there is going to be trend for traditional wives. We think you should depict one in a sitcom." Let's imagine that it is the same strategist on both occasions and they are able to make successes out of a Victoria Beckham, with her earlier education in drama, etc. Doesn't the credit go to this strategist who anticipates the trend? If one Victoria Beckham is not at his disposal, another is: she is not literally Victoria Beckham, but she is a hard-working girl of reasonable talent and has suitable looks for the media-oriented industries which the strategist focuses on. Doesn't the credit go to the master strategist?

Popular music, sitcoms: someone might say, "These are lowbrow fields, which are not of interest to me." But the same thing could happen in highbrow fields. Some Oxford philosophers i in recent years focus on little-by-little paradoxes, such as Timothy Williamson and Derek Parfit. Was there a master strategist distinct from themwho said, "Focus on those"? You can gain knowledge few have (because they are not the most attractive paradoxes to most people), then gain respectability, and people will want to trade with you, and you will attract some workers: it will be like a gentleman's club. If there is a master strategist, they might well think: if there is no Timothy Williamson, no Derek Parfit, I can just get someone else for that role, now that I have figured out the strategy of focus on these not-so-enchanting paradoxes. ("What are these little-by-little paradoxes?" They are mostly from ancient times, such you add one grain to a pile of sand, another, another - surely adding one does not make a significant difference - but then does it never become a heap of sand? It is not enchanting like Derrida's "Forgiveness forgives the unforgiveable," but that is easily solved, I believe.)

How does the craftsman or craftswoman get credit? Won't the credit go to the master strategist? Surely a question that has occurred to others, but not the object of any essay known to me! One answer is only use the most obvious strategies. "Marry a famous person in your field (or have a romantic relationship). Partake in the trends of the day. Supportthe heritage of your nation. Work really hard. And be skilled in your field." No strategic ingenuity whatsoever.

(There is this saying in UK that politics is showbusiness for ugly people. They are not ugly - exceptions? - but they might not have the looks for conventional showbusiness, although there is probably no quicker way to convey the situation. Anyway, a question is the extent to which any of these figureheads have good strategic skills. Boris Johnson has literary skills. Andy Burnham can converse with northerners better than Gordon Brown probably do. I hope some of them do, they are not just "pretty faces" - I mean political faces. In France, was Marine Le Pen shrewdly advised to extrend her father's project mainstream? "But my Dad is quite extreme!" "It can work, it can work...")

References
Beerbohm, Max. 1920. Laughter. Available at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1956/pg1956-images.html#link2H_4_0021
Belloc, Hilaire. 1910. On the effect of time. In On Anything. London: Constable. Available at:
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/61550/pg61550-images.html#Page_45
Bergson, Henri (translated by Cloudesley Brereton and Fred Rothwell). 1900. Laughter: an essay on the meaning of the comic. 
Derrida, Jacques. 2001 (translated by Mark Dooley and Michael Hughes). On forgiveness. In On cosmopolitanism and forgiveness. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://www.columbia.edu/itc/ce/s6403/jacques_derrida.pdf
Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2026 (v1 2025). Don’t express yourself? Social justice versus artistic value in a popular
singer’s stand up comedy (warning: contains code). Available on PhilPapers at:
https://philpapers.org/archive/EDWDEY.pdf
(Earlier discussion of the craftsmanship-credit theme.)
Edward, Terence Rajivan. 2026. Derrida and the birth of a British gentleman's club. Available at:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DbEBpewulpH/
Parfit, Derek. 1984. Reasons and Persons. Oxford: Clarendon Press. Available at:
https://ia801604.us.archive.org/32/items/philosophy-and-psychology/Reasons%20and%20persons%20%28Parfit%2C%20Derek%29%20%28Z-Library%29.pdf
Russell, Betrand. 1932. On Proverbs. New York American. Quotation from it available at:
https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/60064/
Williamson, Timothy. 1994. Vagueness. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://home.iitk.ac.in/~avrs/ManyValuedLogic/Readings/Williams%20-%20Vagueness.pdf