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Philosophy Personal Statement
The determination to study philosophy came gradually since I had been in another career trajectory so far. During the second year at Lithuanian University of Agriculture studying Hydraulic Engineering I participated in the Socrates/Erasmus student exchange program that led me to Pisa, Italy, where I spent four months. This experience contributed much to my socio-cultural understanding and subconsciously I became more interested in the aspects of human problems rather than in engineering. I started to pay maximum attention to philosophy, psychology, pedagogy, sociology, ethics and other similar subjects that within engineering curriculum were considered to be secondary. Later, when I was doing master’s degree in Civil Engineering at Kaunas University of Technology, thanks to a broadminded professor with whom I met, I learned that philosophical thinking is inevitable when working at the cutting edge of any discipline. I was extremely impressed by this idea and it has further ignited my curiosity. I found out that, for example, - Einstein, Darwin, Descartes and Freud –each represented the case where philosophical factor was crucial in their research.
I began my background readings on philosophy from several introductory texts vividly told by Oscar Brenifier, Christine Schulz-Reiss and Luc Ferry. These authors superbly illustrated what philosophy is and gave further directions for developing my interests. Reading ethics and philosophy papers at the university I was introduced to the thoughts of greatest Eastern and Western thinkers. My attention was grabbed by Confucianism because it promotes respectful behavior and emphasizes the importance of education. I was also enormously fascinated by the ideas of Stoic school of thought for its encouragement to develop self-control and fortitude, and for respectful attitude towards the way the world is structured. I read ‘Meditations’ by Marcus Aurelius, ‘The Discourse’ by Epictetus and a few texts by Confucius in order to deepen my knowledge and the wisdom of these two traditions had immensely affected my attitude.
The other thing that encouraged me to philosophize was Lithuania’s geopolitical situation and national mentality. Our little country has never been free from foreign ideologies and either extremity - Communism or Capitalism, atheism or churchgoing – was or is being strongly supported subject to the era. I was lucky to early understand that neither ultraism represents the ultimate truth and became very interested in ideologies and religions. My particular focus is on their origins and fundamental ideas. I like to go into the questions like ‘Marxism vs Capitalism’ or ‘faith vs religion’ giving no support to any side. I examine relevant modern and Soviet time sourcebooks and keep up to date with the websites like ‘Science and Religion’ and ‘Philosophy Now’ in English and ‘Nauka i Religija’ in Russian in order to find the right balance.
Although I didn’t enjoy my engineering studies too much, I appreciate the experience I gained through that period. I was given the opportunity to well familiarize myself with “industrial attitude” based on money-making. Consequently, I understood the reasons of local and global conflicts and it strengthened my critical attitude. In addition, I acquired transferable skills which would be very useful in my future studies. Finally, I have put backgrounds in mathematics, mechanics and physics – the subjects that are amazingly relative to philosophy.
I have grown up and was educated in the society where to develop one’s critical thinking and free thought wasn’t the priority. Instead, education and upbringing aimed to impart the knowledge rather than reveal the talents. I have been affected by this problem, and I am making to pursue educational activity myself in order to become part of the solution. Philosophy, I think, would provide me with much more relevant skills than any other curriculum.
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