WEBVTT
Kind: captions
Language: en-US

00:00:02.480 --> 00:00:07.840
I looked at my high school yearbook somewhat&nbsp;
recently and someone had written, "Don't pursue&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:07.840 --> 00:00:15.600
your dream of being a philosophy professor." So,&nbsp;
I must have had that dream in high school. When I&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:15.600 --> 00:00:23.200
was about um seven or so, I started worrying.&nbsp;
I think maybe kids at some point they realize&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:23.200 --> 00:00:29.360
their parents are separate from them. Then it&nbsp;
becomes possible to like doubt. But in my case,&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:29.360 --> 00:00:38.320
the form it took was like thinking that God had&nbsp;
created a world to trick me, that my parents were&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:45.440
either weren't real or were somehow in on a trick.&nbsp;
So then when I was like maybe 14 and uh someone&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:52.480
had given me an encyclopedia of philosophy, I&nbsp;
came across Dick Hart's argument that we don't&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:52.480 --> 00:00:57.600
actually know anything about the world because&nbsp;
an evil demon could be tricking us and all of&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:03.440
our perceptions could be illusions. And then when&nbsp;
I read that, I was just really astonished that&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:03.440 --> 00:01:08.880
someone else had this thought. I started reading&nbsp;
more and I realized this was just kind of a way&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:08.880 --> 00:01:14.320
of thinking that I had sort of naturally found&nbsp;
myself in and that there were people who for a&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:14.320 --> 00:01:23.760
living thought about this. It got onto my radar.&nbsp;
Happiness is an extraordinarily important part of&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:31.120
being productive, at least for me. I was really&nbsp;
lucky to get a job at Auburn University because&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:31.120 --> 00:01:36.800
of not only the university but just the amazing&nbsp;
philosophy department that we have here. There&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:36.800 --> 00:01:44.720
are, you know, a dozen people in the department&nbsp;
who I can have really interesting and productive&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:44.720 --> 00:01:53.520
and friendly conversations with. A lot of the work&nbsp;
that I've done is directly an effect of meeting&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:01:53.520 --> 00:02:00.080
people here in my department and being affected&nbsp;
by their work. Just by and large, the department&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:02:00.080 --> 00:02:08.880
has been incredibly supportive of research and&nbsp;
teaching and just generally a wonderful place for&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:02:08.880 --> 00:02:16.640
um academics to thrive. So I feel very lucky.&nbsp;
I'm Eric Marcus, Professor of Philosophy in the&nbsp;&nbsp;

00:02:16.640 --> 00:02:24.800
College of Liberal Arts, and I am the recipient&nbsp;
of the Creative Research and Scholarship Award.