Wednesday, August 25, 2010

The idea of philosophy

I've never studied philosophy.  I never considered it before.  I never thought of myself as a philosopher in any way. 

Then, a few months ago, I ran across a book called, The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy.  I love the Narnia books and thought this might be an interesting read.  Boy was it! It was a collection of essays mostly written by university professors of philosophy.  Some of the essays I didn't care for much.  Some weren't to interesting to me, but I read them all and learned a little from each.  Some of the essays were excellent and thought provoking.

As I read the book, I realized, I've been a philosopher for a long time and just never realized it.  It's hard to explain, but about a year ago, I came up with an idea regarding the Narnia books.  I did my best to write down these thoughts, but they were hard to put into words.  I now realize I had a philosophical idea.  Who knew you could do that without knowing it?

Now, I'm looking to read another book from the same author/editor.  He has done several, but the next one I want to read is The Lord of the Rings and Philosophy.  It too is a book of essays.  I think it will make for very interesting reading.

When I started college, I knew what I wanted - to be a camp director.  To become a camp director, I needed to study recreation management and administration.  Done.  What I didn't realize while I was in college was the amazing amount of other interests and studies that were out there.  In the last decade, I've developed interest in the history of Indo-European languages, onomastics as a formal area of study, linguistics, etymology, and now I can add philosophy to my list.  It makes me wonder, what's next?

No comments: