“The men who are not interested in philosophy need it most urgently: they are most helplessly in its power. The men who are not interested in philosophy absorb its principles from the cultural atmosphere around them-from schools, colleges, books, magazines, newspapers, movies, television, etc. Who sets the tone of a culture? A small handful of men: the philosophers. Others follow their lead, either by conviction or by default.” MenNeedsBookPhilosophySchoolCulturePrinciplesTelevisionCollegeHe ManPhilosopherConvictionNewspapersMagazinesAtmosphereToneEtcNot InterestedHandfulDefault Book:The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z Source: The Ayn Rand Lexicon: Objectivism from A to Z
“As long as I'm dealing in honesty, I may as well admit that I have been more influenced (as a person) by my childhood readings of Tolkien and Lewis than I have been by any philosophers I read in college and grad school. The events and characters in Narnia and Middle Earth shaped my ideals, my dreams, my goals. Kant just annoyed me.” WellsMayPersonsLongHas BeensCharacterDreamSchoolEarthReadingGoalChildhoodMiddleEventsHonestyCollegeIdealsPhilosopherAnnoyedNarniaGradMiddle EarthGrad School Author:N.D. Wilson
“I started asking the big questions that I had asked in college, that my compatriots the Greek philosophers had asked, like 'what is a good life?' Socrates famously said that 'The unexamined life is not worth living.' I started asking these questions from the starting point of 'what is success?'” SaidBigsLife IsCollegeAskingStartingPhilosopherGreekGood LifeWorth LivingStarting PointBig QuestionsGreek PhilosopherLife Is Not Worth LivingUnexamined Life Author:Arianna Huffington
“I had no idea what philosophy was until I went to college at UBC. I first read Hume and Plato, so naturally I was under the misapprehension that philosophers are trying to figure out what is true, and that contemporary philosophers are mainly trying to figure out what is true about the mind. Of course Hume and Plato were trying to do that, hence my misapprehension.” TryingMindFirstsIdeasPhilosophyCoursesFiguresCollegePhilosopherContemporaryNo IdeaPlatoHume Author:Patricia Churchland
“I just realized, sometime early on in college, that I wanted to be a philosopher. I basically decided that I wanted to spend my life thinking as deeply and carefully and reflectively as I could about the nature of reality and our human engagement with it, and that taking a philosophical approach was the best way to go about doing this.” ThinkingWayHumansRealityWantedCollegeApproachDecidedPhilosophicalPhilosopherBest WayEngagementJust Realized Author:L.A. Paul