Robert C. Solomon

Thought I would share something that I learned, that I thought was pretty cool. 

I've recently tried to get more into spirituality, for reasons that I hope I can get into more depth about in future posts.  But anyways, I've always been pretty skeptical of the whole notion of a higher power, or a guiding hand.  I thought that maybe someone out there on the internet might have had the same feeling as I had, and maybe had a few words to say.  So I literally looked up "spirituality for the skeptic" on Google.  Lo and behold, apparently there was a book with the same exact title, written by a guy named Robert C. Solomon. 

I read a few of the pages from the excerpt, namely the introduction and a little bit of the first chapter.  It was exciting to finally be able to read something by someone who, for most of his life, has "been dismissive of both spirituality and religion", and regarded most conversations regarding spirituality "to be platitudinous if not nonsense".  Finally, someone like me!  (Note: I re-read the excerpts to get some quotes for the book right now, and I'm starting to think this book might be a good one to pick up.)

Anyways, what I wanted to share was his story about how he got into philosophy.  I like to read Wikipedia articles about writers to find out about their background, and Solomon's was pretty damn interesting.  Apparently he wanted to be a doctor; he studied molecular biology in undergrad, and was enrolled in medical school.  While he was there, he happened to sit in on a philosophy class where they were talking about Nietzsche and the idea of the eternal return.  To quote wikipedia directly:

The professor spoke of how Nietzsche's idea of the eternal return asks the fundamental question: "If given the opportunity to live your life over and over again ad infinitum, forced to go through all of the pain and the grief of existence, would you be overcome with despair? Or would you fall to your knees in gratitude?"

And apparently that question made him drop everything he was doing and start his studies in philosophy. 

It's definitely an interesting question.  One that I need to think more about.  I have a few more thoughts on it but I'll come back to them in a future post.  They're still a little muddled.  But thought I would share this. 

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