A Problem

Of course, in the end, the philosopher needs a problem – needs something that forces him through his studies, W. says. You need grit beneath the shell to grow a philosophical pearl.

And without it? You're only a dilettante, an idler in the garden of knowledge, W. says.

And what's his problem?, I ask him. What forces him through his studies? He's pondered this for a long time, W. says. At first, he thought it might be something in the Jewish tradition, even something about his own Judaism. Something about messianism, he thought. Or was it politics? Was it a sense of the outrage of our time – the outrage of capitalism?

Ah, it was none of those things, W. says. It's become very clear to him. I am his problem. I am what calls for thought.