Professor or philosopher?

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In The Complete Guide to Asperger Syndrome, Attwood introduced the idea that boys with Asperger syndrome tend to be "little professors" whereas girls are usually more like "little philosophers".

Do you identify more as a "philosopher" or a "professor"?

I have always identified more with the "philosopher" label. Throughout my life I have had an intense interest in philosophy and human interactions, and as a child I always had a far greater wisdom and understanding of deep ideas than any other children of my age group. However I hesitate to describe these fascinations as Aspergian special interests, as I do not know many facts or pieces of information about either subject. I am more interested in the deeper ideas and concepts behind these topics.. An aspergian "professor", on the other hand, collects vast amounts of facts and information about the subjects that he/she is interested in. That is something I do to a much lesser degree.

I think this is a really interesting distinction (and it's one I'm very interested in personally, since I'm a "male philosopher"). I am also very similar to the way you describe. I think the idea of it being a gender divide is a little misguided - while I certainly think there is a tendency for more males to fit the logical/analytical profile and more females to fit the imaginitive/philosophical profile (and it may be that the males in the latter category have been historically overlooked the same way females with AS have), the way one's mind works is absolutely not determined by what genitals you have. I'm male and one of those creative, philosophical aspies - I'm an artist and I've never had the kind of brain which comfortably wraps around mathematical/scientific things.

There does, however, seem to be quite polarised distinctions between the analytical and imaginitive types of aspie. I've referred to these types before in other threads as right brain/left brain aspies. Most things about autism seem to fall at extremes with very few people falling in the middle ground.

Both and neither.

Oh, and I'm both "imaginative" and "analytical."

I really wish people would stop trying so hard to shove everyone into tiny boxes.

This is a great discovery for me because I had always thought I didn't fit the AS trait of "little professor". Unrelated to that, I had never understood why I'm such a "little philosopher".

a bit of both....more philosopher , I think........

Professor, always

I was a little engineer, obsessed with building projects. After I gained verbal skills, I became a little professor researching topics, but verry merry berry quiet about them, unlike the little professor lecturing about them. I hope to be a big professor one day. I was never a little philosopher or big philosopher. Philosophy is too abstract for me to understand.

philologist! the person I most look up to in the world is Umberto Eco. I love the study of meaning and language and wish I spoke 20, half of them dead languages, in which I would read philosophy.

professor of philosophy?

I think both.

They do still have professors of philosophy don't they?

I do have an associates in philosophy.