I do not go around telling people that I am a philosopher. Yet it never fails that someone notices a book that I've carried, or reads post-it notes I place around, or has scanned my paper journal I carry with me, and soon enough I am labeled "a philosopher".
BUGGER!!!!
When this happens I am asked to discuss something philosophical, give some great proof as though I were a burning bush in the middle of the desert.
No burning bushes.
More than not I am a disappointment to folks when instead of delivering a fiery sermon of great and towering intellect, I ask them questions.
What do you love?
Why do you love it?
Could you ever not love it?
What part of you loves?
Above all else I have a love of learning, a never-ending "why". I am not a philosopher, but a questioner... my life is a living question. Perhaps it all boils down to one of the first bits of wisdom that my father instilled within me when I was boy.
That was it, I wanted to do what I thought was right. The only problem was...
what was right?
Although raised in the Deep South, I somehow managed to "why" my way out of the dominant cultural beliefs. Partly because I joined the Marines and was exposed to different people and cultures, partly because the ideas never took a deep enough root within me, and partly because I always had the "whys".
It wasn't always easy and I've contradicted myself countless times. Yet this matters little to me, for I keep holding to that one dictum given me by my father... always do what I think is right. You might say that I've been a student of ethics my whole life.
And hopefully I’ll always be able to change my position radically. As Bertrand Russell once said, “I don’t want to die for my beliefs, for my beliefs may be wrong.”
"Son, always do what you think is right. If you believe it is so, I'll stand by you."
~ Dad
His "Ethics" is my favorite book and the one I'd take with me on a deserted island. It has had a profound impact on my views of religion.
“Peace is not the absence of war, but a virtue based on strength of character.”
No surprise that one the greatest influences on Western science and religion should also be one of mine. I think that two things that got me most when I first encountered him was the defining of things, and what a virtue is.
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
“He who hath many friends hath none.”
“Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.”
