Ricardo Navia teaches philosophy in Uruguay, where he was born. He holds a Master's degree in contemporary philosophy and a Ph.D. in the philosophy of knowledge, both earned in Brazil. He worked with Hilary Putnam at Harvard University, and wrote a dissertation about the theoretical aspects of R. Rorty's neopragmatism. He has been a university professor since 1985, training teachers, but has never abandoned teaching philosophy in secondary schools. Since 2002 he teaches TOK at Colegio Stella Maris in Montevideo. His hobbies include good magazines and webzines (e.g. Edge or Eurozine), and he is enthusiastic about almost all kinds of music. He admires people who work for peace, for the advancement of culture, for human rights, and for the elimination of poverty and injustice. One of his favourite quotations is Teilhard de Chardin's "Someday, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity...we shall harness the energies of love. Then for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."