Major K.
17th October 2015, 09:54
What were some major turning points in your intellectual history?
For me, I'd say one of the biggest turning points was when I discovered that you could find high quality lectures, speeches, and audio books online. You can just put that stuff on your mp3 player or what-have-you and learn anywhere at your own pace and about whatever intrigues you at the time.
As for intellectual figures, I'd say Alan Watts was a pretty big influence on my worldview in my early 20s, mostly because of the types of questions he asks (e.g. looking at people's basic metaphysical assumptions from multiple different perspectives) and his refreshingly unmoored conclusions (he was also a fan of Kropotkin). More recently, and more politically oriented, there's more a wide cast of philosophers I study, though I have been more in a "tasting" phase lately, excluding certain historians like Will Durant.
What about you?
Major K.
For me, I'd say one of the biggest turning points was when I discovered that you could find high quality lectures, speeches, and audio books online. You can just put that stuff on your mp3 player or what-have-you and learn anywhere at your own pace and about whatever intrigues you at the time.
As for intellectual figures, I'd say Alan Watts was a pretty big influence on my worldview in my early 20s, mostly because of the types of questions he asks (e.g. looking at people's basic metaphysical assumptions from multiple different perspectives) and his refreshingly unmoored conclusions (he was also a fan of Kropotkin). More recently, and more politically oriented, there's more a wide cast of philosophers I study, though I have been more in a "tasting" phase lately, excluding certain historians like Will Durant.
What about you?
Major K.