Peter's academic interests

My first academic interest was biology, more specifically, botany. I didn't know what it was called when I was in primary school, but I grew up on a farm, and from an early age, I loved growing things, especially difficult things. One of my successes was a fig tree which I also practiced Japanese bonsai on. It is now grown large on my parents' farm.

Botany led to an interest in biology, and from the start of high school, I loved all of science. I spend my travel time reading science books. After biology, I wanted to know how cells worked, which led to chemistry. that was my fascination for a couple of years, but then I wondered how atoms and molecules worked, so naturally physics became my favourite. But all the time another interest was growing: mathematics. This was great because unlike physics, in mathematics, we proved things with 100% certainty forever. Pythagoras's theorem is absolutely true forever. And 2+2=4 absolutely and forever.

But are those things so certainly true? In my last years of high school, my maths and physics teacher, who was also a Catholic brother, introduced me to philosophy to challenge my thinking a bit more. That was a bit risky. He introduced me to a Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkagaard, but I quickly moved on to Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant and modern thinkers, which did not help my belief in the Christian god.

Mathematics and physics were what I started studying at university, but then switched to a philosophy major, with a couple of dead languages throw in for fun.

Today, philosophy is a continuing passion, but I also read a lot of history, economics and of course literature. Homer might be the best, but Jane Austen is also great. Even Dan Brown's rubbish when I want something silly to relax with.