First paragraph:
It's decades ago: while I stumbled through a small universe called university, I encountered two or three main experiences:

a) Others were able to read the same texts as I did (according to the plan of the prof) without having the same harvest as me.

b) There are authors of a giantic power of thought whom I can try to follow but not re-tell in full depth. I can inhale their wisdom and change myself but cannot reproduce it nor re-inforce the impact on friends.

c) It is not possible to gain consense on which authors are high quality and which of them are just mediocre. These different perspectives seem to result from personal values and personal image of mankind. Truth and reality can be regarded as fancy toys rather than basic believes.

This happened to me on my first encounter with epistemology. I was highly interested in this part of knowledge or better philosophy because I came from a strongly fundamental Christian part of my life and was en route to regain control over my thinking. Thus I was very wide open for argues that showed: Reason can't improve God. And why! That was the important thing.

I am deeply thankful to Kant, and that is the main reason to mention his name, be he dead or alive. He is my hero and as my hero he is part of my secondo me as no other is (beside Jaspers ;-) ).

Second paragraph:
Now I thank you very much for insisting on unfolding thoughts by meanings of elaborated posts (or formerly letters) instead of snipping opinions into short messages. I disliked it for myself while doing - out of some fear to take weeks for my next post. But weakly answering instead of weekly is not the solution. So I will be patient with myself and hope on your patience too.

Third paragraph:
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Now I read Agostinho da Silva. I agree to him (about 98 %, if I may say so). I did not jump into philosophy since I knew or felt: philosophy would swallow me. I observed philosophical writing from afar, and about ten years after my scientific studies I was ready to take approaches to Her Majesty because I had found my personal guide to her realm. Instead of Agostinho da Silva it is for me Karl Jaspers whom I regard to be the greatest German philosopher of the XXth century. He helped me to re-gain my own (and completely renewed) secondo me which had been lost for several years.