Frank Schaeffer In Conversation with Philosopher and Author Matthew Stewart, exploring his work and the themes of his books, The 9.9 Percent: The New Aristocracy That Is Entrenching Inequality and Warping Our Culture, and the forthcoming An Emancipation of the Mind: Radical Philosophy, the War Over Slavery, and the Refounding of America.
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My father was an officer in the Marine Corps. My mother was a former schoolteacher from Barcelona, Spain. They met in Germany. I was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. We moved every three years or so, to various places in California, Virginia, and the Washington, D.C. area. When my father went to Vietnam for a couple of year-long tours, my mother, brother, sister, and I moved in with my grandparents in Barcelona.
I graduated from Princeton University in 1985 with a concentration in political philosophy. I was awarded the Sachs Scholarship from Princeton for study at Oxford University, where I completed a DPhil in philosophy in 1988. In the course of my doctoral studies, I discovered what I took to be irrefutable philosophical objections to pursuing a career in academic philosophy.
As I was not qualified for any kind of employment and could conceive of no better way to advance my literary ambition, I became a management consultant. The work involved extensive travel, much practice in foreign languages, and considerable on-the-job training, all at the expense of large financial institutions which, for reasons that are sometimes difficult to articulate, sought advice from people like me on matters having to do with their business strategy.
