I have gradually come to realize
what every great philosophy so far has been:

a confession of faith on the part of its author,
and a type of involuntary and unself-conscious memoir;
in short, that the moral (or immoral) intentions in every philosophy
constitute the true living seed
from which the whole plant
has always grown.

Actually, to explain
how the strangest metaphysical claims of a philosopher
really come about,
it is always good (and wise) to begin by asking:
what morality is it (is he –) getting at?

…anyone who looks at people’s basic drives,
to see how far they may have played
their little game
right here as inspiring geniuses (or daemons or sprites –),
will find that
they all practiced philosophy
at some point,

– and that every single one of them
would be only too pleased
to present itself as the ultimate purpose of existence…

…there is absolutely nothing impersonal
about the philosopher; and in particular
his morals bear decided and decisive witness
to who he (she) is –

Beyond Good and Evil by Friedrich Nietzsche, trans. Judith Norman, aphorism 6

Philosophy is felt to be a rarefied, exclusive, and obscure field within academia. There is no doubt that many of us with an interest in philosophy have taken a deep drink of “the Kool-Aid.” There is ego satisfaction in the philosophies which we have read, even if we happen not to earn our living by means of a professorship teaching philosophy.

I have found it best to keep my passion for philosophy to myself when initially becoming acquainted with someone. Disclosing that part of myself too soon is off-putting. There’s suspicion of interest in philosophy – as just “too weird.” I suppose there is at least a grain-of-truth to that snap judgment. I have known philosophers with weirdly exaggerated egos.

Nietzsche writes that the rarefied, and special status accorded to philosophy and to philosophers is but a veil of concealment, or a misunderstanding. Philosophies are constructed out of a scrum of values, a competition of desire, in which one desire is ascendant, primary. That desire is massaged into a likely story, the employment of academic jargon which gains a following. At root though, there’s just a desire elevated to a metaphysical principle.

“Every great philosophy is a confession of faith,” writes Nietzsche.

I am reminded that even Plato wrote that his creation myth in The Timaeus was a “likely story.”

What is your likely story?

I could use a tune! How about you? This one works. The incomparable Cher, Believe.