Gregory B. Sadler
I wouldn't say there was any one thing or moment that got me interested in philosophy. It was a number of different things that over a period of years steered me in that direction.
Although I doubt they ever used the term "philosophy" to describe what we were doing in our discussions about life, politics, right and wrong, and so on, I'd say that my mom and dad, my uncle Aime, and my great-uncle Hubert played roles in fostering my interests that would eventually lead into philosophy.
From age 3 on, I also did a lot of reading entirely on my own, and got exposed to a good number of philosophical ideas, usually in the context of history or literature. What ideas precisely those might have been, I couldn't do more than guess at this point. By the time I was in high school, though I was reading some stuff in philosophy, though not understanding more than half of it.
I'd say that one teacher in particular was centrally important for me in high school, a substitute, Mr. Lornezo. He effectively turned our Sacraments class into a philosophy class, in which we got exposed to, and discussed ideas from Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. That was really helpful, since the official philosophy class I took earlier at that high school, from another instructor, was really quite bad, and would have turned me off from the discipline.
Where you should you start? That's a totally different question
Although I doubt they ever used the term "philosophy" to describe what we were doing in our discussions about life, politics, right and wrong, and so on, I'd say that my mom and dad, my uncle Aime, and my great-uncle Hubert played roles in fostering my interests that would eventually lead into philosophy.
From age 3 on, I also did a lot of reading entirely on my own, and got exposed to a good number of philosophical ideas, usually in the context of history or literature. What ideas precisely those might have been, I couldn't do more than guess at this point. By the time I was in high school, though I was reading some stuff in philosophy, though not understanding more than half of it.
I'd say that one teacher in particular was centrally important for me in high school, a substitute, Mr. Lornezo. He effectively turned our Sacraments class into a philosophy class, in which we got exposed to, and discussed ideas from Plato, Aristotle, and Augustine. That was really helpful, since the official philosophy class I took earlier at that high school, from another instructor, was really quite bad, and would have turned me off from the discipline.
Where you should you start? That's a totally different question
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