Letter From The Founder
Dear PHIction Readers,
The question ‘What is philosophy?’ is a rather difficult one to answer. However, it is generally accepted that philosophy is the love and pursuit of wisdom. Let us accept this. How should one pursue such a search, then?
I remember it was spring of 2010 when the idea of PHIction came about. At the time, I was an undergraduate working on my BA in English and in philosophy. I confidently and ambitiously walked into the office of Vincent Luizzi, the Chair of the Philosophy Department at Texas State University-San Marcos, and pitched the idea of a journal that recognizes the value of literary arts as a medium of philosophical expression. After all, it only takes a few readings of Plato or Kierkegaard or Voltaire or Camus to understand how literary devices can illustrate philosophical concepts in an imaginative way; and one can read Thoreau, Asimov, Shelley, or Wilde to see how philosophical concepts enhance the contents of literature. Of course, the names mentioned are only a handful out of the many that merge the creative with the philosophic.
PHIction’s debut issue appeared in the spring of 2011. Publication was open to all undergraduate and graduate students at Texas State University-San Marcos. Now, in its second publication, the journal has achieved an international and national audience.
And now the answer to my question ‘How should one pursue wisdom?’ Wisdom reveals itself in more ways than one, so why not be a little creative chasing after it.
Cheers,
to the pursuit
Founder and Editor-in-Chief,
Kathryn Slaughter
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