Finding Equality Through Logic

Support for NPR podcasts comes from prudential retirement offering income flax, designed to provide retirement income. It's a new day for retirement plans, prudential.com/ifx.

I believe in mystery. I believe in family. I believe in being who I am. I believe in the power of failure. And I believe normal life is extraordinary.

This I believe.

Listener Yvette Doss responded to our open call for essays for a series this I believe. Doss divides her time between Chicago and Los Angeles, and between jewelry design and writing. She was a funding editor of an alternative weekly newspaper, and Latino magazine. Here is our serious creator, /and/ independent producer Jay Alison.

When she was little, Yvette Doss came across her older sister’s books for her philosophy class, her sister did not particularly like the reading, but Yvette did, profoundly, those books began shaping her belief, here is Yvette Doss with her essay for this I believe.

I believe that you can take control of your destiny, through the power of philosophy, the turning point for me was the day I learnt that the questions I had about religion, morals, inequality and injustice in the world. We are not only acceptable questions, but questions to be encouraged.

Great minds like Plato and Descartes had spent countless hours pondering life’s mysteries throughout the ages, I realize that my mind, the mind of a misfit half Mexican teenage girl living in an immigrant neighborhood in LA could ponder those mysteries too.

The fact that my best friend dropped out of school at age sixteen to have a baby, or that few of my neighbors had college educations, did not exclude me from the conversation of the ages . I believe the act of philosophical thinking is not the exclusive domain of the privileged, the moneyed, the old or the accomplished.

I lived in a household run by a single mother, and I/’ve/ moved around from neighborhood to neighborhood, from new school to new school. There were games, crime and substandard schools to content with in my pocket of southeast Los Angeles. I struggled with finding my place in the world that though imperfect was the closest thing I had to home. But I have /a/ big questions on my mind too, did my challenging circumstances mean that I should only think about the difficulty of day to day existence? Why could not I wonder about the logic questions in life, like why are we /are/ here, does it have to be this way, what if there is not a god ,and most importantly was I destined to accept my lord in life, just because I was born with fewer advantages than those luckier than I? The Christ pages of the books /that/ I cracked opened each night and read until I fell asleep with the flashlight tucked under my arm/s/ told me otherwise, ‘the unexamined life is not worth living’, Socrates said. Man is born free and everywhere he is in chains, said Jean Jacques Rousseau. So * were shared, I tore myself away from the safe comforts of certainties through my love for the truth, and the truth rewarded me. Descartes and him/self/ validated my questioning of democratic religious belief.

I was connected to the larger world of ideas through the simple act of opening those books. Thanks to philosophers, my new friends , I considered my thoughts worth expressing , and later when I tried my hand at writing, I experienced the joy of seeing my thoughts fill/ed/ a page, I believe the wisdom of the ages help me see beyond my station in life, help me imagine a world in which I mattered. Philosophy gave me permission to use my mind and inspiration to aim high in my goals for myself. Philosophy allowed me to dare to imagine a world in which man can reason his way to justice , women can choose their lives’ course, and the poor can live themselves out of the god. Philosophy taught me that logic makes equals of a soul.

Yvette Doss with her essay for "This I believe". Doss eventually received to her degree in philosophy from the University of Californian, Berkley. She was inspired direct for the series because she said it's one of the only opportunities in broadcast media to reflect * personal philosophy. If you’d like to take this up on an offer to write about your philosophy, visit npr.org to find out more. For "This I believe", I'm Jay Alison.

Jay Alison is co-editor with Dan Gateman, John Gregory, and Vicky Maric of the book "This I Believe", the personal philosophies of remarkable men and women.

Support for "This I Believe" comes from prudential retirement. This is weekend edition from NPR news. I'm Liana Hanson.

"This I Believe" is independently produced by Jay Alison, and Dan Gateman with John Gregory and Vicky Maric. There’s the "This I Believe" journal and dayplanner that might help you write your own statement of belief. It's available from the NPR shop and at npr.org/thisibelieve.