I am a full time lecturer at the University of Washington Tacoma where I teach introductory philosophy and critical thinking courses as well as a variety of courses in ethics.
My own introduction to philosophy was on the playground one day in the fourth grade when a friend of mine declared he was an atheist. After clearing up what “atheist” meant, I thought I had a knock-down argument: “But things exist and everything came from something before it.”
“But that might as well go back forever” my friend said.
“No. It’s got to end at some point” I replied.
That argument continued through high school. It included more of our friends as time went on and included more topics: ethics, truth, and how to know when something is true to name a few. Eventually I was struck by the sheer strangeness of anything happening at all. We were weird kids.
While in college and plugging along toward a biology degree, I took an introduction to philosophy class and that was that. After teaching biology at a private boarding school for a few years I entered graduate school at the University of Washington, earning my PhD in philosophy in 2014.
That friend from the fourth grade went on to be a librarian. We still engage in thorough discussion, but these days it’s mostly about politics and foreign policy.
Jeramy Gee 