Mine arose at 18 years old, while I was looking for books on Christian philosophy. In this time, I was attracted by Christianity, though I knew it very little. So I came across a book on scholastic philosophy: “sintesi scolastica” (in italian). As I read it, I fell in love with philosophy, and I wanted to further my new interest. Philosophy quickly became my main center of interest, replacing literature. So I owe my awakening to an almost unknown philosopher with which I share now very few opinions. But it is him that opened the way…
My conception of philosophy has recently been overthrown, as three cyberphilosophers (Tentative, Dunamis, and another one outside ILP) overwhelmed me with their skepticism. But despite all hardships, the interest has stuck.
Actually no, I should clarify. It dawned on me after my second year of college after I realized my interests in psychology wouldn’t really make me happy in the longrun that I was always a philosopher/writer.
For example when I was 11 I would roleplay online on MUD’s (multi user domain, a text only game basically) and write stories in class when I should have been studying. The list goes on…
So basically I feel I’ve always been a philosopher. Paul Glee paints in order not to cry, my opinion is similar when it comes to writing.
Well, it started for me during my undergraduate career while attending a seminary. At that point, i was beginning to enjoy discussing theology and the dilemmas of a systematic theology and the replacing of one metaphysical goal for another. But, after encountering problems with the academic quality there, i transferred to another university.
After realising that Psychology was fun to read, but boring to do (i have gained an intense hate for number-crunching) and enrolled in an Intro to Logic course (it was basically 0 order logic), i switched ships to phiolsophy. My interest was at first in Philosophy of Religion (my thesis was on omniscience and free will), but i soon became interested in what lies after the Enlightenment (my second area of specialization was Kant and Heidegger). In my senior year, i decided to continue on in graduate school on philosophy, where i am focusing on theology after Heidegger’s ontology (and borrowing some of Nietzsche and Kierkegaard). Now, i am partially through my first year of grad school, working towards two MA’s: Philosophy and Religous Studies. i am currently working with Carl Raschke (recently added to the Southern Baptist Convention’s blacklist for pushing religious postmodernism).
Assuming expected progress, i will wind up at Princeton Seminary, focusing on Karl Barth and his relation/compatibility with postmodernism.
I’ve always been a thinker even when I was young but I used emotions more than I used reason and logic. Strangely I could convince people to belive me in this way, its something thats stuck with me and is a great asset in debates, although debates are supposed to be strictly without passion or emotion I find its the passion that drives me to think further and harder as well as be more creative to prove my opponent wrong and I get good support from my audiance.
Ok well I’m in grade 12 now and what got me into philosophy deeply is philosophy class, its filled with smart people who constantly challenge me, a good teacher, who although can improve on listening is still far beyond me in philosophy in some aspects but I’m getting there.
In grade 10 I failed my Canadian History class [although I got amazing marks on tests i didn’t do assignments] because I spent every single class reading through the philosophy textbook, which fascinated me.
So yea what go me started is reading the philosophy textbook in history class.
I got into philosophy the old fashion way.
Talking to friends in high school about what is
life, and the meaning of life type of stuff.
That was 35 years ago and I still haven’t figured it out.
Maybe I will get it in the next 35 years. Maybe not.
What a beautiful way to put it. But no, I came to philosophy probably at around 15, in the context of atheism v. theism, and philosophy of history. When I was around 16 I read Nietzsche, then Sartre and Wittgenstein. And the rest, as they say, is history.
I got into Philosophy by studying Classics at school. I had to do Ancient Greek language, Greek Literature, Theatre, Architecture, Art, sculpture… originally I was going to go on and do classics at university, but during my A-Levels (exams you can take while you are 17/18 in the UK) I read some Aristotle. Since then I haven’t really enjoyed the rest of that stuff, just philosophy. Sometimes I feel quite angry about that.
From the age of about 5 when I was off school and had to be taken into work by my mother who at that time worked as a sociology of science lecturer. I didn’t understand the lectures, nor the books that I tried to read that I found on the shelves in those rooms and I suppose my determination to be able to understand these books with ludicrously polysyllabic titles was what really kicked off my thinking. Actually, balls to that, it was simply me trying to understand what I didn’t understand, in lots of different ways.
Fastforward 10 years and I was unable to take Religious Studies for A-level (the last 2 years of school in this country) so I started reading philosophy in my spare time to compensate for this (I took drama instead). I got into the philosophy of art around that time because of drama, studying Brecht and Stanislavski. Studying history and literature simply fed this interest more and more so I read Sartre and Nietzsche then Wittgenstein the following year. I got into Derrida when I was 18 or 19, from reading Wittgenstein and a book which connects the thought of the two writers. Since then I’ve just been reading and arguing and bouncing ideas off one another in a more or less continuous fashion. Because I was studying film history last year much of the philosophy I read was film theory and criticism, which is one of the best areas of applied philosophy that I’ve ever encountered and one I firmly recommend.
God knows why philosophy has always been part of my spirit. As a child, I was always musing and pondering. I really did claim to be pregnant as a boy. I really did think I had contracted AI.D.S at the age of 7.
This is a big cliche’ but the issues of death, sexuality and honesty, have always plagued my mind, and these ‘issues’ have always stirred my mind. I have always been of a philsoophical ‘bent’. I started reading philosophy in High School - mainly condensed grand text book.
Smoking cannabis, despite its problems, definetly stimualted my thoughts and the quality of my thinking. It led to a lot of creative endeavours. (which is strnage because so many young people smoke dope and lie in bed for a decade and stink of sweat and -i-don’t-care attitude)
Being Dyslexic - something I still debate and never use as an excuse for anything - and particuarly ‘silly’ by degree in personality - I wanted to prove that I could ‘be clever’ could ‘understand’ things and people.
Life always fasinates me. Terrifies…philosophy is simply - considering life…this is something I have always done…it is integral to who i am. who we all are. it is a big pile of stinking shit. and i love it.
Reading Richard Bach’s Jonathan Livingston Seagull and Dr. Zeuss’s Horton Hears a Who at the age of 4 or was it 5. Yes, they are children’s books but, very good at prime philosophy.
I was always interested in science, but spurned philosophy until the year after I graduated high school. My girlfriend’s father was a professor, and he recomended Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. After I read that, I read every book that he mentions in ZMM, and then went from there. There was no escape, I was hooked by philosophy.[/i]
My first and finest taste of philosophy was when I had witnessed 3 Spanish men loading a cross, a bucked of holy water [with boiled potatoes in it] and a poodle into a catapult, and then they fired at a near by castle named : “Atheistica”.
One of the men at the top of the castle commented:
“You fundamentalists are all alike…”
From then on it was my goal to become the world’s greatest fundamentalist, and I have not stopped loading holy water and poodles into my catapults since.
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And thats the gospel truth![/size]