I want to create a mind that is disciplined, capable of sustained argument, steeped in the best ideas, and constantly generating new ones. I want to join the conversation of the ages and spend my life in the pursuit of knowledge.
My strongest character traits center on learning and curiosity. There is nothing I enjoy more than applying my brain to difficult tasks and learning about the world around me in intricate detail. I feel charged to use this gift in the service of my society.
I want to spend many hours over the next years immersed in the best ideas of the past two-thousand years. I want to use my mind in a synthetic way, adding original ideas to the conversation. I’d like to become a popularizer of science and philosophy. I don’t think the joy of investigating the world should be held captive by rich old white men. I love museums, libraries, gardens, and science centers and I want to help build more of them.
I plan on pursuing education to the highest level I can manage over the course of my life. I want to earn at least one advanced degree in the social sciences or the humanities. I can see myself writing prolifically. I plan to spend many hours shaping my ideas and feelings into prose. I want to develop a rigorous, poetic writing style and use it to explore the nooks and crevices of the mind and of nature.
I will always approach my work with the spirit of an explorer. I will try my best to use my skills of analysis and observation to improve my work every day. I will work eagerly in my field, taking great care with my work, and treating it as a trust. I will always search for intellectual possibilities in my daily work and nurture my curious nature.
I want to take on major learning projects and stick with them until they bear fruit. I will attempt to master bodies of knowledge in a systematic, but passionate way. I will start, perhaps, with the analytic tradition in Western philosophy and work my way back to the ancients. Can I read everything? I will try, working my way through hundreds of major works of literature, philosophy, drama, and poetry over the course of my lifetime. I will then weave what I’ve learn into my interactions with my students, with my professional audience, and with the public. I will learn because I LOVE to learn. I will learn for the joy of mastering new ideas. I will learn for the exhilaration of scaling intellectual mountains, to stand and look out across the world.
...from USE MY GIFTS of intelligence and curiosity to serve others
I would like to come up with a working definition of “polymath” so I’ll have a standard to judge by. How will I know if I’m approaching this goal? I know it’s a long journey, more than a destination, but wouldn’t it be fun to work out how I would be different when I have traveled far along that road? Maybe I could pick paragons, people who lived this virtue to an extraordinary degree, and write about the kind of people they were. I’m thinking of a Rene Descartes or a Richard Feynman. Any thoughts on paragon nominations?
