Topics Profession

Question Hi. As an undergrad I became deeply interested in philosophy two years ago, and am currently on track to graduate next semester. I've enjoyed relative academic success in my studies but am usually unable to translate this into any sort of "philosophical" confidence. My question I suppose is this, did any of you experience extreme dread before considering grad school and lack of confidence as well? I feel that in ways philosophy has opened up so much for me, and that I can either continue to pursue it academically or live out a "philosophical" existence of experience. This is all very vague but I'm looking forward to hearing advice from a diversity of people in the field. Thank you for your time...Jake Claro

Accepted:
November 15, 2005

Comments

Dear Jake,

People differ, of course. Some are sort of cocky and look graduate school in the face without blinking. Others — and I've known many, many such — are very nervous at the prospect, convinced that they just don't know enough to go to graduate school, aren't well prepared enough, perhaps aren't even smart enough or philosophically astute enough. I don't expect any of these postures is in the slightest bit predictive of how much a person will enjoy graduate school or of how well he or she will do in philosophy: confident people can crash and burn, and insecure souls can flourish. I suppose if your lack of confidence is so intense you simply cannot enjoy what you're doing, well, that's one thing. But if you don't find that your worry dims the delight you take in philosophy, then perhaps you ought to consider allowing yourself to be nervous but paying it no mind.

Yours,