The catalyst for this came from mixing with people from all over the world. It was actually rubbing elbows with Russians that affected me the most. We were at the heighth of the Cold War then and I had absorbed much of the propoganda demonizing Russians. In retrospect, I see this as the first adumbration of what Ken Wilber calls vision-logic. I had many years of developing my rational abilities ahead of me before I could more fully realize that which I had foreseen at age nine.
Philosophical maturation progresses in leaps as well as through slow, steady work.
Tracing our adult-fashioned beliefs to childhood insights is a beneficial philosophical exercise not only because it sharpens our sense of the evolutionary aspect of thought but also because of the perspective it gives one of such phenomena as conscience. Such a question piques my interest in ethics. You might also notice how this would influence my pursuit of the question of moral development with students. One of my early peak experiences occured when I was around twelve. I was simply walking along a path in The Hague when, out of the blue, I was overwhelmed by an unspeakable joy that made me privy to universal harmony.