David Strauss

I questioned myself and world all my life. Trying to understand, I studied both economics and philosophy in Tuebingen, Germany. I learned about the ways how people interact, but still struggled to find myself, understand being and world.

In what followed, I made a hedonistic turn, and chose to simply have a good time without questioning too much. I went on to pursue a PhD in Economics from the European University Institute in Florence, and worked a few years as a professor in Economics in Mexico City.

However, the questioning never truly stopped. Why are we conscious and not unconscious beings? Why do we have notions of beautiful and good? What defines those notions for each of us? What defines any thing? What defines me/us?

Far from understanding completely, I feel that my path of thought and life has shown me some truths. Most importantly, I think that what defines us is not the individual names, the race, gender, or nationality. Nor that we are human (itself simply a name given to our species) or even our consciousness - we often act unconsciously and that does not make us something entirely different. Yet, a being that is not alive, is different. We can still value and commemorate it, but it is no longer us. That concl...