An Engineer Well Lost

Since I was born and raised in a predominantly Catholic area of Boston and sent to a Catholic elementary school, it would be natural to infer that my interest in philosophy was stirred by questions about religion.Such was not the case.As evidenced by having to repeat the third grade, I was a very mediocre student with a mind to match.In fact, the only questions that seriously occupied me concerned the fate of the Boston Red Sox and, occasionally, the Boston Bruins.My less-than-stellar school performance continued in a secondary school devoted to science and engineering and came to an unwelcome end at Northeastern University's School of Engineering when, after two years of desultory study, I was authoritatively told that the world would be much safer if I did not become an engineer.Realizing that I was lost to engineering, I stopped my mindless drifting.My predicament forced me to ask serious questions about what I was going to do with my life.Little did I know at that time how such a personal question can easily morph into the sort of philosophical inquiries found in Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics!Fortunately, a friend of mine, who was well informed about matters philosophical, helped guide my incoherent inquiries.Because of him, I became an omnivorous reader though, perhaps, a somewhat indiscriminate one.Unfortunately, I still had to earn a living and, thus, spent the next two years attached to an engineering firm where I worked as a road surveyor.It was then, too, that the judgment about the safety of the world was confirmed when one of the half completed bridges I had worked on, began slowly to sink into a riverbed.Before I could return to university to pursue my interest in philosophy, I was drafted into the United States Navy for two years.While I disliked my time in the navy, it proved to be beneficial since it not only fostered my maturing, but also helped me develop my interests.For one thing, I was the only sailor aboard our ship who was reading Plato, Aristotle, as well as George Santayana!Moreover, six months in the Mediterranean allowed me visits to Greece, Turkey, Italy, Spain, and France.Since our home-port was on the French Riviera, I frequently escaped the gastronomically disastrous food served on our ship and tasted the remarkable cuisine of southern France.After my discharge from the Navy, I was lucky to be admitted to Boston College-a Jesuit-run university.The Jesuits required all students, Catholic or not, to take two courses per year in philosophy as well as two in theology.The philosophy courses followed a prescribed sequence starting with logic and epistemology in the first year and ending with ethics in the final year.It was in the ethics course that I encountered my first Jesuit teacher of philosophy.We respectfully addressed him as -Father Toolin‖ but he was known to us as -No Foolin' Toolin‖.These required courses tended to be formulaic as well as too dependent on a single textbook.Surprisingly, although he was acknowledged, Aquinas's work never made an appearance.Nevertheless, these courses gave rise to argument and debate about important issues.1

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