About Me
My name is Sascha Settegast, I am a 21 year old student of philosophy and history at the University of Trier, Germany. Additionally, I am a participant in the OAC’s undergraduate program.
I was born in April 1986 in Stralsund, a town near the Isle of Ruegen, in the communist German Democratic Republic. After the Downfall of Communism, my family moved to Southern Germany, where I went to school. I graduated in 2005 and went on to study philosophy and history, which I have been doing ever since.
My first encounter with the philosophy of Ayn Rand was while reading her “Capitalism: The Unkown Ideal” sometime in the fall of 2003, I believe. I have committed a great deal of time and effort since then, in order to grasp her system and apply it to my own life.
A special interest of mine lies with the theory of civilization. It is such a complex and all encompassing subject, integrating immense sums of knowledge from all possible fields, that I feel it to be a worthy challenge.
The purpose of this blog is to share some of my thoughts and philosophic ideas. Usually, I blog with an Objectivist frame of reference. I do not and cannot, however, claim to be representative of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, since I am just a student of Objectivism so far, and still got much to learn.
1.
johannmayr | February 3, 2008 at 11:03 am
Say, visiting your own blog every day?
2.
Sascha Settegast | February 3, 2008 at 2:38 pm
No. However, I get a message everytime someone leaves something here.
I guess, the best thing, then, really would be the correspond via email.
3.
Burgess Laughlin | March 23, 2008 at 5:01 pm
Congratulations, on two counts:
1. For choosing a fascinating double field of study: philosophy and history, the realm of the widest abstractions and the realm of the narrowest particulars.
2. For integrating them, if I have understood you correctly, into a clear central purpose in life–to study theories of civilization, and formulate your own someday.
A CPL based on such an integration is breathtaking and perfectly logical.
I wish you well and a long-life. With the years, knowledge accumulates, and the range of one’s vision–of the past, present, and perhaps even the future–expands accordingly.
4.
Burgess Laughlin | August 20, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Sascha, I don’t have an email address for you, so I am contacting you this way.
I am writing to let you know about a project a website developer and I have been working on for more than a year: Study Groups for Objectivists, an on-line site for serious students of philosophy and history.
http://www.wcsoft.com/sgoApp/Login.aspx
For serious students, inside or outside academia, each form of study–isolated, independent study; guided, independent study; study groups; tutoring; lectures; and classroom work–has advantages and disadvantages.
SGO is designed for those few individuals who, in certain circumstances and for particular texts, see the advantages of slow, steady, scheduled study with a few other like-minded individuals.
SGO is still under construction, but all the major functions are in place. One study group, on Ch. 5 of ITOE, has successfully tested the format.
I am not ready to make a full, public announcement. That will come later. Activity may be slow for months–until we build up a minimal “critical mass” of members, enough to ensure that at least one study group is current at a time.
In the meantime, I invite you to browse the site, either through the Learn More box on the visitor’s home page or through the individual blue links at the bottom of the home and other pages.
Burgess Laughlin
http://www.aristotleadventure.blogspot.com