When he was twenty-three or twenty-four my father began to learn German and read philosophy in his spare hours, which did not look as though he were destined to remain long on board ship!
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My father was a classic intellectual. From him I learned devotion, and I also learned about the life of the mind.
After attending the gymnasium between my eighth and seventeenth years, I studied classical philology at Berlin University for two years under Boeckh and Lachmann, and with the friendly support of Emanuel Geibel and Franz Kugler, I dabbled in all sorts of poetry.
The beginnings of my studies also came to me from my father, as well as from the Rabbinical Judge of our town. But they were preceded by three tutors under whom I studied, one after the other, from the time I was three and a half till I turned eight and a half.
My father was this huge, influential intellectual in the '60s and '70s. He was one of the main players in the cultural discussion in Sweden, the editor of papers.
Between the ages of 24 and 27, I read Freud's complete works, everything that had been translated into English. It was very stimulating intellectually. But I did not accept his view of neurosis or of human nature.
I discovered philosophy in my youth when I read 'wildly,' and thus I was exposed to the world of ideas.
He who devotes sixteen hours a day to hard study may become at sixty as wise as he thought himself at twenty.
More particularly, having a largely German-oriented education has made me very responsive to 19th-century German literature.
My father firmly embraced the Ralph Kramden philosophy: he was king of his Levittown castle. He worked hard, and his family deferred to his wishes. Except me. I did not defer and was disciplined accordingly.
My father was a tyrant about reading, and that put me off books when I was little.
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