Spring Break
Things I've Learned with Richard Bett, professor of philosophy
Professor Bett, who specializes in ancient Greek and Roman philosophy, talks about his days at Oxford and the pressure to "publish or perish"
Issue date: 11/15/07
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Richard Bett is a professor of philosophy here at Hopkins. The News-Letter spoke with him about his life and what he does both inside and outside the classroom.
News-Letter: What you were interested in as a child?
Richard Bett: Well I guess my first intellectual interest, as a five year old, was astronomy. I was really into the planets and things like that, which is not exactly what I ended up doing, but I guess that's sort of the same broad questions about the universe, which is what people in philosophy are concerned with. I was into ancient studies as well as an older kid, and that is something I am still involved in in my research teaching here. I'm from England originally, and dug in one or two sites in Rome and Britain, but I fairly quickly decided I wasn't into the physical remains, but rather the written remains.
N-L: What was your favorite part of college?
RB: I wasn't that thrilled about Oxford, to be honest. I mean it was okay, it was very hard work. I made some good friends there. I learned a lot. But I felt Oxford was a bit of an insular town. I knew I wanted to pursue an academic career, which is why, when the time came for graduate school, I thought maybe the United States would be a good place to try, because that would clearly be a big change from Oxford.
N-L: Were there a lot of students from Oxford who went to the US?
RB: Not that many. There were a lot the other way around. This was the late '70s when I was there. There were a lot of American students in Oxford. I think there still are. This was the pre-Thatcher days, when the tuition was the same for American and British students. I met a lot of American students there and they gave me lots of advice about where to attempt to go to graduate school here.
N-L: What did you study there?
RB: I studied classics and philosophy; it was a joint undergraduate degree.
N-L: How did you get into philosophy, formally speaking?
RB: In high school I read a little bit of Plato and things like that as part of my ancient studies. This degree I did as an undergraduate, that was how it was structured: If you did classics you also had to do some philosophy. It's like a very ancient degree, like 200 years ago, that was the only thing you could study there, and gradually some other fields were added. But they still had this relic field.
News-Letter: What you were interested in as a child?
Richard Bett: Well I guess my first intellectual interest, as a five year old, was astronomy. I was really into the planets and things like that, which is not exactly what I ended up doing, but I guess that's sort of the same broad questions about the universe, which is what people in philosophy are concerned with. I was into ancient studies as well as an older kid, and that is something I am still involved in in my research teaching here. I'm from England originally, and dug in one or two sites in Rome and Britain, but I fairly quickly decided I wasn't into the physical remains, but rather the written remains.
N-L: What was your favorite part of college?
RB: I wasn't that thrilled about Oxford, to be honest. I mean it was okay, it was very hard work. I made some good friends there. I learned a lot. But I felt Oxford was a bit of an insular town. I knew I wanted to pursue an academic career, which is why, when the time came for graduate school, I thought maybe the United States would be a good place to try, because that would clearly be a big change from Oxford.
N-L: Were there a lot of students from Oxford who went to the US?
RB: Not that many. There were a lot the other way around. This was the late '70s when I was there. There were a lot of American students in Oxford. I think there still are. This was the pre-Thatcher days, when the tuition was the same for American and British students. I met a lot of American students there and they gave me lots of advice about where to attempt to go to graduate school here.
N-L: What did you study there?
RB: I studied classics and philosophy; it was a joint undergraduate degree.
N-L: How did you get into philosophy, formally speaking?
RB: In high school I read a little bit of Plato and things like that as part of my ancient studies. This degree I did as an undergraduate, that was how it was structured: If you did classics you also had to do some philosophy. It's like a very ancient degree, like 200 years ago, that was the only thing you could study there, and gradually some other fields were added. But they still had this relic field.
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