Philosophy Now Forum

I studied physics at university, but also took some courses in philosophy of science. These got me interested in philosophy generally. Afterwards I worked for BT Laboratories, developing underwater optical fibre telephone cables. However, I became very interested in questions to do with ethics and the meaning of life, so I went to the University of York to take a Masters degree in philosophy. I specialised in ethics and philosophy of mind.

Afterwards, I went back to working as a physicist, but I was now mostly interested in philosophy, and noticed that there were no magazines available for people interested in philosophical questions. Therefore I decided to start one, and I launched Philosophy Now in 1991, in my spare time.

For the last few years I've worked full-time as editor of Philosophy Now, which is fun. In 1997 I joined forces with a group of American philosophers, who formed the US Board of Editors of the magazine. In 1998 I teamed up with Dr Anja Steinbauer, who chairs the Philosophy For All organisation in London and now co-edits the magazine with me in London.

Hi Rick,

I came to philosophy by accident. I wanted to understand why the world is as it is, why contemporary society has come to govern and organize itself the way it has e.g., democracy, corporatism and capitalism. The other forms of knowledge, history and science, could not not tell me the whole story. They didn't deal with the metaphysical aspect of the world, metaphysical being the underlining and unconscious things that have motivated us to shape the world the way we have.

The needs and aspirations of humans have had perhaps the same influence, or more, in our trajectory as the natural world.