Journal 4

Richard Taylor, born November 5th, 1919, was an American Philosopher best known for his

book Metaphysics. In his interview with Tim Madigan he mentions that he never took philosophy in

college, but instead he went to college and studied religion. He was told that he would make a good

priest, and his mother strongly encouraged it. He was later recruited into the Navy right after the

bombing of pearl harbor, during world war 2. During his time serving in the Philippines, he would read

philosophy books. Those around him encouraged him to go Oberlin College, which eventually landed

him in Brown University. This is when he started to take up analytic philosophy.

"All men are fatalists when they look back on things." A fatalist is a person who believes that

everything that happens, happens because of fate. When men look back on the things they do, they tell

themselves that everything happens with a purpose. That's really closely related with religion. People

who follow the Church of Christ tend to believe that God has a plan mapped out for them. This must

have came from his ideas from his college times when he was studying religion pre-world war 2.

My boyfriend, Marshall got into a car accident last year when he was driving him and his friend

home for a sleepover. Marshall has accidentally pulled out into traffic unaware that the green light he

saw was not for him. This resulted in them getting hit by a truck going 10 miles over the speed limit.

Luckily for the two of them, they were not hurt. The only pain they were in was the impact from the

airbags. My boyfriend believes that it was a work of God. That God saved him and his friend from a lot

more pain and damage. He learned his lesson from that experience, and every time he looks back on it,

he believes he was meant to do that, that God had a plan for him to come back from that experience

and learn from it.