I wanted to become

I wanted to be a part of

the philosophy department

because I took a course in my very first semester.

It was, global ethics.

And I absolutely fell in love

with all of the theories

but more so than the theories.

Just like talking through

that thought process

I thought was just something
that, like, really, really spoke to me.

and a lot of the things that I learned
in subsequent

philosophy courses, I've really tried
to, like, put into my life as well.

it's almost romantic to me.

Like, this is what I thought
college would be like.

Well, definitely political philosophy.

Like your class that I'm taking right now

is very important to understanding the ways of thinking

that lead into how people make

policy decisions is very important.

So just thinking about how I can apply that to my career

in understanding how other people think

and also understanding the implicit

biases and theories that undermine how I think,

I think are really important.

I feel like it has led me to think more deeply

and critically about the things that I go through.

You know, there's a famous quote that's like,

the unexamined life is not worth living.

And like, ever since I've had that thought process,

I've really wanted to examine my life.

And where I’m going and what I want to do with it.

And then more so than that, there were just so many,

like, philosophical theories that have spoken a lot to me.

Like political philosophy obviously is really important to me

as someone who wants to go into politics,

but also just things like phenomenology, like, and the like

thinking about how we interact

with the world around us has been really critical.

I'm going to have to go with Karl Marx.

I love Marx. He really changed my life I feel like.

He helped a lot of things sort of slot together.

Another person that is really important to me

is Emma Goldman.

Me and my first year politics professor really bonded over

a love for Emma Goldman.

And she ended up getting me my first college job.

So that was really sick.

And, yeah, just like the Transcendentalists are really cool.

I love those those kinds of philosophers.

Honestly there was a lot of groundwork to go into that decision.

But to keep it simple and succinct,

I think the big major event

that happened to me was around 13, 14.

I was reading a book called The Universe in Your Hand.

I think it's by a French physicist,

and it's a chapter in the book that talks about

the death of the universe.

And I remember going, oh my God,

the universe is one day going to end.

And as like as a 13, 14 year old,

that was such a heavy thing to me.

I said, okay, I don't know all the answers.

I'm never going to know all the answers, but I want to engage

life to the fullest, knowing that at the end of the day,

potentially there's nothing at the end.

So what matters is what I do with the time I have.

So that was kind of the moment where I was like,

how do I do that?

And I think philosophy was the route

to do that and engage with that.

So my Dad is from Chile, and I read The Trial by Franz Kafka

on the flight to Santiago.

I think the way Kafka handles

bureaucracy is normally the way that the book is interpreted.

And he himself is a philosopher

and a literary icon is interpreted.

But I interpreted it in a way

that is just, again, the way you engage with life.

Also, I love to write and I

oh my God, there's a scene in the trial

where K goes into the courthouse

and he's surrounded by all these, like,

tall, looming, shadowy figures,

and they're like, murmuring.

And I think that is one of the greatest scenes

in literary history.

Beautifully done, beautifully written.

And it inspires me because I think that is what life can be.

Both very dark, very ominous, pushing back at you,

and at the same time you pushing back at it.

Maybe not in the quote unquote correct way,

but also in a very poetic and very beautiful way.

And I think that is why, because life can be poetry

and you can write poetry with what you do. So, yeah.

There’s this word that often gets bounced around a lot,

both inside and outside of philosophy.

And that is authenticity.

Whether or not that really exists, I have no idea.

But the way we can relate both to ourselves,

the way we want to relate

to ourselves, the image we have of ourselves,

and the way we want to relate

to other people and the image we have of other people.

I think the closest way, like Narcissus looking into the pool,

the closest way that reflection can match up

is through direct engagement and reflection.

And I think that is genuinely what philosophy is, right?

Love of wisdom. Search for knowledge.

And so there you go. And then of the word itself.

Why philosophy is deeply moving

because it allows us to match up the people we want to be

and the people we want to be with, with ourselves.

The book I would clutch to my chest out of deep desperation.

I would say Being and Time by Heidegger.

And the reason why is because I think my conception of reality

would break and shutdown, and I would want to make sense of it,

in a way where when I get finally devoured by zombies,

and my flesh is distributed among the masses.

Oh my God.

I would like to feel happy.

And that's one of the books that ironically makes me go like.

Oh, wow. So interesting.

So my last moments, I'd be like, “oh, interesting.”

And then, get devoured.