Progress: Beyond Possible?

 

 

 

 The real me still is being born.

 

 

 

Why Progress?

 

My experience as a Philosophy major was disappointing to put it lightly.  Although I once ironically described myself as a "Philosophical Entrepreneur," I don't actually consider myself a Philosopher but mainly a lifelong student of Philosophy.  My professors in the Philosophy department tended to make the endeavor as excruciatingly painful and mundane as possible while also acting as if all the major questions had already been answered which I knew deep down to be untrue.  From what I could see, this didn't appear to be the case in other universities around the world.  Although, I entered the university system in 2008, I didn't declare my major until 2009 at the request of my admissions counselor who borrowed my book 'A Sense of the Cosmos' by Jacob Needleman (RIP) and never returned it to me.  I blame myself for being so generous.  

 

Now my aim is to figure out how to advance the field of Philosophy so that my experience doesn't become the norm for future students.  Though it very well could be that I was simply unprepared for the rigors expected and required by the university system, it didn't help that a handful of classmates in the program created Facebook profiles under the names of famous Philosophers and decided to ridicule and harass me.  Also was put in the unfortunate position of being enrolled in a "Critical Thinking on Moral Problems" class where the professor was accused of strangling my friend.  It's never a good idea for professors to date their students.  The idea of making progress initially entered my head thanks to taking a course called "Mind & Reality" and the professor was adamant that I do so.  Since then, I've been mildly obsessed with the many paradoxes of progress and hope to see some kind of light at the end of this tunnel vision.  

 

BBC:     Do we need a better understanding of 'progress'?

Substack:    What Progress Wants

 

"There is no progress whatever. Everything is just the same as it was thousands, and tens of thousands, of years ago. The outward form changes. The essence does not change." -Robert Louis Stevenson