My poor dad has been reading Fear and Trembling by Kierkegaard, because I gave it to him for Christmas. We've been discussing it some over email today, and these we some of his thoughts about philosophy in general today and my future. Please enjoy:
I have a working definition for philosophers: they are people who tell us what we already know (instinctively or otherwise) in a way that is hard to understand.
Of course there are plenty of things we don’t know for sure, and so there is plenty of room for speculation and pontification. After all, “life is like a box of chocolates.” Now, most boxes of chocolate come with a diagram of what is in the box. When you bite into one, you know what you have, and have better odds of predicting what the next piece will be. Some people just randomly bite into a chocolate because they don’t care, some people’s chocolate boxes are strewn with half eaten pieces, and some people’s boxes are nearly full due to fear of the unknown. So, how do you approach chocolates?
I was thinking the other day that instead of being a “historian” you could be a “futurian” – one who forecasts the future based on trends from the past and present. Interesting idea, but maybe hard to sell.
So, that's my career track: a futurian. Gotta love Dad.
2 comments:
i would go with "futurist." sounds hipper.
Haha. definitely hipper. I think dad just went for a combo of 'historian' and 'future'.
Post a Comment