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Question Why did you take philosophy? Was it a long standing goal in life or did you just wake up one morning and decide to be the next Plato or Socrates?

Accepted:
November 13, 2005

Comments

Fortunately, I never thought I would try to be the next Plato or Socrates. I was originally attracted to philosophy because I thought that it asked particularly basic questions, questions that where underneath a lot of the other questions people ask. (I felt somewhat similarly about physics.) When I started studying philosophy seriously as an undergraduate, I wasn't disappointed. I really enjoyed the issues and the arguments, and I didn't mind that we kept circling back to the same big questions without ever definitively answering them. Maybe it's a case of arrested development, but these feelings and pleasures have stayed with me.

For many, I expect, a love of philosophy was neither a revelation nor something nurtured since infancy. Like many of the better things in life, philosophy is something one develops a taste for, over time, often accelerated through exposure to powerful influences at critical junctures. A mind-bending book here, a wonderful teacher there, some deeply satisfying experiences trying to wrestle with a problem, and before you know it, it's under your skin.

Question Why did you take philosophy? Was it a long standing goal in life or did you just wake up one morning and decide to be the next Plato or Socrates? Accepted:November 13, 2005

Question Why did you take philosophy? Was it a long standing goal in life or did you just wake up one morning and decide to be the next Plato or Socrates?

Accepted:
November 13, 2005