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The following feature story appeared in the campus publication MOSAIC in May, 1997.
Brooks Holtan '97
Discovering and following an intellectual passion
Perhaps the best description of graduating senior Brooks S. Holtan is "a natural at philosophy," Associate Professor of Philosophy Maurice L. Wade's characterization of her. Those who know Holtan know that her guiding passions and the way she looks at life are, well, philosophical. Take rowing, for example. Holtan rowed on the Women's Crew team for three years. Asked what drew her to the sport, Holtan says, "The aesthetic experience. You're out on the water for early morning practice, the sun is coming up, and everything is quiet and still. And it's a great experience when we're all rowing together -- like being part of a community working together in an unspoken, intuitive way."
Holtan, a member of Phi Beta Kappa and the President's Fellow in the philosophy department, came to Trinity from Seattle, WA. She says that she had learned in high school that the best possible education is available in small liberal arts colleges. "They produce today's equivalent of 'the Renaissance man,'" a high school teacher told her. And after exploring a number of liberal arts colleges, Holtan chose Trinity, principally for its philosophy department and the academic experience the College offered.
Once at Trinity, Holtan trained her intense intellectual curiosity first on the Guided Studies Program: European Civilization, where she eventually served as a Teaching Assistant. "Serving as a TA," says Holtan, "was a great opportunity to learn and to reflect on the material and then to share my ideas with the class." The Guided Studies Program also launched Holtan on her exploration of philosophy.
Everyday experiences and systematic thinking
Holtan's interest in philosophy centers on what she describes as the "tension" between the everyday experiences of existence and the intellectual activity needed to make sense of those experiences. Early in her undergraduate career Holtan thought that majoring in English would enable her to pursue her curiosity about that tension. She discovered that, while English allowed her to examine "the everyday" as it is represented in novels and other narratives, philosophy was "a way to bring together my interests in everyday experiences and systematic thought."
Holtan increasingly turned her attention to the works of Plato and Martin Heidegger, both of whom explored the tension in which she was most interested. Beginning "with a great need to learn," she expanded her interests to take in not only the history of philosophy and the development of philosophical ideas but also "the language of philosophy."
In her senior thesis Holtan drew upon the constellation of the everyday, systematic thought, and language to fashion an argument about Plato's Phaedrus. She just recently successfully defended her senior thesis, which Drew A. Hyland, Charles A. Dana Professor of Philosophy, characterizes as "outstanding. It is a work of deep scholarship and one that makes a very personal statement about philosophy." Hyland's judgment is echoed by Wade's assessment of Holtan's academic achievement in general: "Her work shows that philosophy has great significance for so-called practical matters."
Holtan has thoroughly enjoyed the "life of the mind" she has lived at Trinity. When asked what she did for fun these past four years, she says simply, "That was my fun -- the academic experience here, my summer of study in Paris, learning ancient Greek -- I loved my classes. I loved everything I did."
Finding and following her passion
Holtan leaves Trinity for Washington University in St. Louis, MO, where she will pursue graduate studies in philosophy. "I'm really excited," she says. "It's very challenging to move on to professional philosophy." Holtan will continue to explore and develop the ideas and arguments that she launched at Trinity, and her professors at the College predict, in Hyland's words, "that she will go on to do great things in philosophy."
Holtan's plans grew partially from family wisdom and partially from her characteristic temperament. "When I was thinking about college and wondering what to do with my life, my father told me that I should find my passion and follow it." To those words of advice and wisdom she adds her own: "You also need to discover how to contribute, and the best way to contribute is to do what you love. Teaching philosophy is how I hope to contribute."
--Mark Warren McLaughlin