When I was about six or seven years old I remember becoming conscious of the existence of certain nagging questions. I tortured myself late at night obsessing about the size of the universe and the beginning of time. If time could be defined as starting at a specific point, couldn't something have happened before that? And how and why did time begin? If the universe is a specific size, can't there be something else outside of it? After I went to my first funeral I wondered - what will happen to me and everyone I know after we die and is there any "purpose" for our being here in the first place? I was very dissatisfied with the answers that adults were giving me. I wasn't hearing anything that seemed to make sense.
As I grew older, I began to wonder if there was any point to asking such questions. Does anyone really "know" the answers? What does it mean to know something? Can there be more than one truth? What does it mean to live a meaningful life?
Perhaps I'm hoping that, as I begin my introductory philosophy class this week, I will be exposed to ideas that I've never considered before and new ways of thinking about the issues we all wrestle with as human beings.
These are things that push us towards philosophy in our everyday experience.
ReplyDeleteNice post!