I, also, think this is a great idea. As someone who’s really pretty new to the forums, it will be great to learn more about y’all.
My name is Chris Dohna, I’m 21, and about to begin my last year at the University of California, San Diego. I’ve already finished the classes I need for a BA in Philosophy, and am hanging around to sort out what I want to do, finish a Political Theory minor, and write an honors thesis.
I’ve been the chief editor of a philosophy research journal, Intuitions, for 2 years. That job basically entails organizing, advertising, writing the non-research-parts, hiring peer reviewers, reviewing, and editing the academic publication.
Now that I have found philosophy, I really can’t imagine doing anything else in school. I specialize in ethics, and particularly enjoy the traditions of existentialism, Buddhism, and the metaphysics of quality. Some of my earlier views can be found as half the subject of a cover story in the San Diego Reader.
Currently I’m trying to use a lot of the ideas in those systems to develop a “radical ethicism”, which would use ethical concerns and intuitions first to then know about metaphysics (does god exist? What is real? etc.), to re-define what counts as reasons for something, and to re-define what we ought to want from an ethical society. I’m also, as you probably could have guessed by now, “president” of the UCSD philosophy club.
I also just started working part time with the California Student Opportunity and Access Program as a College Peer Advisor, which basically means I work in “traditionally underprivileged” area high schools, and help kids decide what higher education path is best for them, help them do the academics to be qualified, apply to college, select a college, and get financial assistance to pay for college.
I love teaching, and think it’s got to be part of my future. Plan A right now is to apply to the Teach For America program, which sends new college grads to areas that need teachers and sets them up with a 2 year teaching assignment. Going back for grad school to become a professor is definitely appealing.
I’ve been born and raised exclusively in San Diego county, and now live on Mission Bay. It’s the best city on earth. Hobbies include some landscape art photography (website: cdohna.googlepages.com) and a little bit of road cycling.
My first snake was a wild caught San Diego gopher snake that dad caught in the backyard when I was just 9. He’s now 12. Only last year I decided to add a second, a Cal King. Earlier this year I decided I wanted to move into some boid species, and I got my BRB. At NARBC Anaheim, I picked up my first python, a normal not-het-for-anything BP. I already know I’m probably going to pick up something at the LA super show in January. For me, my animals are just pets, though I’ve already had a roommate volunteer to provide some investment capital to make breeding work…
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-Chris
cdohna.googlepages.com
1.0.0 WC SD Gopher Snake, Max
1.0.0 CB Albino Banded Cal King, Manny
0.1.0 CB BRB, Mucalinda
0.1.0 CB BP, Maya
