Sofia Mikulasek
- What do you like about studying philosophy at Harvard? Practicing good philosophy is very good at teaching you how not to be precious with your thoughts. It does this by showing you the cost of preciousness: defensiveness, selfishness, and, ultimately, intellectual dishonesty and viciousness. When done well, an education in philosophy can inculcate intellectual humility while nonetheless preserving the zest and care that led one to feeling that their thoughts are precious in the first place (of course they are!). I like doing philosophy because it makes me feel grounded--like I really know what it is that I'm talking about when I'm talking, something no other discipline has ever given me. I like doing philosophy at Harvard because I think the department is very good at teaching us undergrads how to ground ourselves, mostly by making their classes difficult in a way befitting a humanities subject. There can be a lot of shame and fear that comes with realizing that most things you've thought are wrong, or at least too coarsely defined to really be right, and as I have gone through many (many) cycles of this, I have found professors, grad students, and peers to be abundantly articulate and attentive with me as I have dug through problems in what is turning out to be a never-ending quest to get to the bottom (of what? Here's some part of my problem...). This is well-captured by the sense of kindness that I find pervades the department, and goes back to my initial motivations for studying philosophy--to learn what (intellectual) kindness consists in, and how best to practice it.
- House: Currier House (but I live off-campus)
- Concentration: Philosophy
- Other Concentrations Considered: Comparative Literature, Pure Math
- Philosophy Courses Taken: Phil 156: Philosophy of Mind, Phil 173e: Is Ethics Objective?, Phil 137: Later Wittgenstein, Phil 157z: Anscombe's Intention, Phil 256a: Topics in Metaphysics, Gov 94saf: Undergraduate Ethics Fellowship Seminar (And more on political philosophy, logic, ancient philosophy, and Wittgenstein at a previous institution)
- Thesis: Sometimes, when I'm in pain, I tell you about it. Sometimes, you'll listen. It seems like through this process you come to learn something about what it is like to be me. My thesis asks what the nature of your knowledge of my pain can be--and in particular asks if there might be a volitional part of coming to know other's pain (that has been largely ignored by metaphysicians and epistemologists).
- Other Interests / Notes: I'm interested in a wide array of topics in the philosophy of language, philosophy of mind, epistemology, (meta)ethics, and metaphysics. One of these days, I'll understand Wittgenstein and all of my problems will go away (kidding (mostly)). I'm also very interested in the philosophy of education, ethical questions surrounding our relationship to animals, and the continental/analytic divide in philosophy--having spent meaningful time on opposing islands on all counts.
I'd be particularly excited to talk to other non-traditional students: fellow transfer students, those who have taken time off, and married students.