Your aspiration to study philosophy.
okay, so my aspiration to study philosophy began in high school. i was a competitive policy debater and frequently had to argue against philosophical criticisms that claimed the arguments i was making were invalid for some philosophical reason. so with that, i had to read some literature on foucault, zizek, nietzsche, and baudrillard (who, by the way, i still don’t quite “get” — although to be fair, i haven’t really tried). so, even though the high school i debated for didn’t “run” philosophical arguments, i had to read some literature on different thinkers in order to be able to effectively argue against them.
that is what ultimately peaked my interest. but even before i knew that i wanted to study philosophy, i loved dostoevsky (fav author ever, obvi) and part of the reason why i was so fond of his work was because of its philosophical nature. i didn’t realize at the time (got into dosty pretty early…around 7th and 8th grade) that (part of) the reason i loved dostoevsky so much was because of philosophy. but debate is ultimately what shed the light.
and then, on top of that, the guy i dated for most of high school was a philosophy major and he would give me book recommendations and reiterate lectures he’d been to.
as for what continues to inspire me to pursue philosophy, i’ve gotta say it’s just really fucking interesting. i seriously become more interested in it the more i learn about it. as you have probably deduced thus far, i like things that are thought-provoking, creative, and critical of existing phenomena that we understandably take for granted. philosophy is all of those things. i mean, for example, even thinkers i disagree with (ohai descartes and a bunch of kant) i enjoy reading because they offer a new perspective and relay the genius of the author. in other words, descartes (and others i don’t really like/agree with) interests me because i find it fascinating to learn about how he is able to justify his positions. i appreciate his genius even if i don’t find it particularly persuasive.
i have trouble understanding how people don’t find philosophy interesting. or even worse, i can’t understand how people think philosophy has no practical utility. how can people be uninterested in how the world works, why we orient ourselves towards others the way we do, and what it means to be alive? and how can anyone say that it’s not practical to understand the world in which we live? even if philosophy did nothing but give me a sense of who i am, i’d say that’s infinitely more practical (for me) than learning physics. the way i think of it, life creates its own meaning. I understand myself and the world in an arguably more profound way than my counterparts who refuse to engage in philosophical inquiries. and it makes me happy to do so.
also, like, hannah arendt was a philosopher (even though she preferred to be considered a “political theorist”) who took philosophy and turned it into something politically useful. the people who think philosophy isn’t important, think so because their understanding of “useful” has to do with economic practicality. but honestly, fuck that. i’d enjoy my life a lot less if i decided to be an accountant.
end rant: philosophy is the greatest and everyone should do it.
