Machiel Roest

During High school I spent time studying philosophy and discovered the work of Ludwig von Wittgenstein. After reading the Tractatus Logico Philosophicus, I realized that philosophical problems were limited by language and not by thinking itself. Reading the Tractatus in German, English, French and Dutch gave the impression of reading four different works. The interpretations of the various translators did not, in my eyes, really reflect what Wittgenstein meant to say.

The works of Friedrich Nietzsche, Hannah Arendt, Martin Heidegger and Arthur Schopenhauer have been an important inspiration in my life. Gradually their thinking became part of my life. I became "obsessed", searching society to find examples of their thinking. What philosophical concepts could I observe in our society? And if I could not find any - was there a sense to philosophy?!

After a short study of economics, I ended up as a stock broker in the financial world. Great successes, big setbacks and not feeling at home in the world of finance were the reasons why I experienced severe depression in the mid-1990s. During this period, I realized that using language in reading, thinking about, and the studying of the works of great philosophers is only a limited...