danielle caserta

    My interest first began in philosophy when I was a freshman in college (as there was not much study of philosophy in high school, another major fault with The System).  I was a political science major at the time and was taking a basic core introductory to philosophy course and was studying Plato and reading The Republic...well everything was so interesting and so
clear to me... the ideas about the state and the people and how society works and how it should work..i was enchanted.  Since then social philosophy..ideas about how we live as a community and a people together has been a leading force in how I live my life.

With this newfound love of philosophy......
    I value social relations more now and am able to think on a broader scale about life in general.  I look beyond the trivialities of life that maybe upset me from day to day and see life, the world, the interaction between people has a growing changing energy force that is there to be understood and changed for the better by every individual acting an important part of a whole.  Philosophy has given me, I dont know, more of a reason to love life...(not like I didnt love life before) but its like when you have a goal you work harder to reach that goal and for me, learning is a goal, philsophy is a goal, understanding is a goal..I know these goals do not have a finish line but perhaps this is what makes me want it more.. I dont know if I am actually making sense to those who do not value knowlege...but it is strong desire inside .  Philsophy has brought me to understand, respect and sometimes agree with differing views..those who hold a difference of opinion with myself and/or with the norms of society.

  

  The Philosophy Department at SUNY Cortland is a major reason for this desire of knowledge. I have learned a great deal from this small, close and intelligent group of professors who have taught me not only things for an exam or paper, etc. but they taught me about loving knowledge. That philosophy is everywhere in life...The small department has a great advantage in that when I attended SUC I felt comfortable with my professors, they were my peers and I felt that I learned together with them.. philosophy is the idea of constant learning , constant change..there is no head of philsophy who says what you think is wrong or right... defending what you think is what matters.. your ideas are your own and the department always encouraged freethinkers who with a little help, knowledge and a strong desire can succeed.  I felt that I was a successful philosopher at suny cortland and that would not have been possible studying in any other philosophy department at any other college.  I picked up a strong sense of what I want to learn, what  I believe, what I will continue to learn and how I will continue with my life from experiences at suny cortland.

for my life now...,
    I am teaching the english language ( as well as keeping up some philosophical debate in my classes) at a private english institute in caracas, venezuela... I will be returning home after teaching for 7 months in october  and will then continue my future philosophical studies on the graduate level.  MY long/short terms plans are to attain a PhD in philosophy and teach (free thinking) at the university level.