My early desire was to win fame and fortune as a novelist on the model of F. Scott Fitzgerald. Entering G.W. I chose to major in ether law or philosophy, thinking that a writer could benefit from either one. Since law was a graduate matter I chose philosophy.
In my first year in grad school I began a long, gradual process of switching my self- image from fiction writer to philosopher. It took years but in the end — somewhere around the time of my first teaching job — I was a thoroughly committed academician, with a family to support and whose mental well being depended on receiving the respect of my fellow philosophers. As a philosopher I was, however, at loose ends. I recall complaining to a colleague that we needed a method. The immortal — if largely nowadays passed over in silence — Wittgenstein has filled that need.