I need to start off, right out of the gate, and state my love for what Feynman said about honors, in reply to his Nobel Prize, "honors bother me" " other people use my work" "I don't understand it, it hurts me!" I can really relate to this point of view, and admire it from somebody so accomplished, because even after all the gained esteem one can still maintain a level of passion for what drove them to pursue their field- the pleasure of finding new things!
When Feynman said, "it hurts me" that he was referring to the honors and the idea of receiving them and not 'other' people using his work, the fact that his work is used by other physicists is one of the very honors that Feynman relished. That to me is incredibly refreshing and it is also an ethic that is embedded in myself of which I hold dearly! I understand the physical discontent with honors and so-called prestigious membership clubs and the like.
Clarity and exact thinking are two concepts that I feel are lost in the current day. The preconceptions that Russell speaks of are alive and well. They are fueled by emotions that produce the bias, prejudices and even the unconscious results in our decision making, particularly in our politics. I'd like to know what he meant in regard to philosophy, being that the 'old fashion' aspect of it not being needed, right now.
-Jeremy Watkins
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