Sean asked:

How does one become a professional Philosopher? My writings seem to revolve around the Origins
— of life, of matter, of the universe — but I don't know where to go from here. I've applied to
Humanities programs, but if I don't get into University now I may not be able to go for a while. Is a
degree necessary for a naturally intuitive, able minded Philosopher to succeed in this field? I want to
be well known one day, how do I do it?

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Do you want to be "known" or do you want to be a philosopher? Are the two the same? What is a
"professional" philosopher? You might think about those a bit. Here's what's necessary to be a
"professional philosopher" as I understand that phrase. 1) learn philosophy extremely thoroughly and
well, 2) learn to think very precisely, 3) find some original problems, or at least, problems recognized
as such by a community of philosophers, 4) publish some approaches to solving, or if you're very
lucky, some solutions to those problems, 5) defend those against the inevitable attacks, 6) use the
above to get a job teaching philosophy, or to write popular books (see below).

1) requires a great deal of reading, usually guided (i.e., a graduate education in philosophy, usually).
2) requires a great deal of writing, criticized in detail (i.e., a graduate education in philosophy...
usually). 3) requires 1 and some of 2, plus creativity... which latter seems very hard to teach. 4) once
you've got the above, just look at journals and see which ones might be sympathetic to your point of
view. Send papers to them. 5) more of 3 and 4.

In the meantime, if "professional" implies being paid for what you do, you have to find a job "doing"
philosophy, i.e., teaching it, usually (which isn't usually part of 1-5, above). Is a degree necessary?
No... if you're exceptionally brilliant, motivated, you work at it continuously, andyou earn money by
some other means... no. Colin Wilson might be considered a philosopher who succeeded without all
that (but he's also a novelist, who has tried, initially successfully, to combine the two). I don't know of
any modernprofessional philosopher, without a doctorate, who is not a novelist and making money
that way, who has succeeded in doing nothing but writing technical works in philosophy, for the
simple reason that you don't get paid for those (unless you're already well-known as a philosopher...
then popularizing your work can sell it; or writing textbooks can sell them). Now, there might be
someone who inherited wealth and has only written, with no degrees... but I can't think of who that
might be, offhand, except Wittgenstein, perhaps, in his early years (I can't remember whether he had
a doctorate... I don't believe so... later on, however, he repudiated his family's wealth, and taught).
Nietzsche inherited money, as I recall. You can go to the books and look up biographies, if you
want... but now, I think, it is virtually impossible to teach without a doctorate, and how else are you
going to eat anddo philosophy, long-term?

Steven Ravett Brown

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