ABSTRACT
When I was invited to give this lecture, I was told that the purpose of the Dewey Foundation in sponsoring this new series is to have a philosopher speak about his or her career; that the talk is to be autobiographical and to be about the speaker’s engagement with the field, rather than an actual contribution on some philosophical issue. This seemed like a delightful challenge. I love to tell stories—and I believe that storytelling is essential for teaching philosophy—so why not try to tell the story of my own romance with philosophy. As I look back (and forward) on my career in philosophy, I cannot help feeling that for many, many reasons (which I’ll try to communicate) I’ve been extremely lucky. But where to begin?
