Hey Everyone!

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

Hey, my name is Lindsay.

This is my first time on a philosophical-discussion website. I've been reading certain types of comparative philosophy books for at least 7 years now. For every chapter I read, I highlight the points that peak my interest, and write my own philosophical reflection based off that. I cite all my references so i don't get accused of plagiarism. Unfortunately, I do not have any friends interested in intellectual philosophy conversation that stimulates the mind; which is why I have turned to this site, hoping to find someone, anyone, who is interested in the general and subcategories of philosophy. I hope we can peacefully inspire each other without fighting, and get some intellectual stimulation going.

Excited to be here. Hoping to meet some new friends.

[Veganman]

Hi Lindsay,

I'm an ethical vegan mainly interested in ethical philosophy, particularly in respect of animal rights. I live in Wales with my wife and rescue dogs. I used to be a therapist but now I run a small business. I'm also interested in cosmology, psychiatry and psychology.

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

Hey Veganman!

I'm a strong believer in animal rights myself. Are you an activist as well? I hear Wales is beautiful. I live in the United States, although I wish I could move to Canada lol. That's interesting that you used to be a therapist, I have a therapist and see a psychiatrist regularly myself; not that that means anything to you or not, just thought I'd mention it. Anyone who knows me knows I'm an open book. And I sometimes overshare

I'm interested in many branches of philosophy, but I'll try to narrow it down to my favorites: Epistemology, Metaphysics, and Utilitarianism. I like one specific branch of ethics called Care Ethics.

[Veganman]

Hi, I try to be an activist when I can but it's not always easy to get to protests etc when you run a business, which is what I do now. I'm quite interested in your reasons for seeing a therapist and a psychiatrist, call it professional curiosity! However, I am aware that such matters are both very personal and confidential, so if you don't want to say any more that's fine, but if you do then you're always welcome to email me if you wish. What part of America do you live in? I've always wanted to live in Canada, even though I've never been there! Lol. Like many things in my life it's something I've not yet got round to it. I can't say I'm familiar with "care ethics" although I would imagine that it conflicts quite strongly with your other area of interest, "utilitarianism." Metaphysics is an area I'd like to know more about. I did actually do a degree in lit/philosophy many years ago, but can I remember anything ... nope! I enjoy reading Peter Singer and others in the area of ethical philosophy, mainly in respect to both animal rights and human rights, but epistemology is not an aspect of philosophy that particularly holds me.

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

I sent you a private message about that personal part. I have been living in Florida for the past 5 years or so, but I grew up in Connecticut and New York. Same with me about Canada, never been! I just love how they handle their politics and how they help their citizens. Yes, Care Ethics does thread a little bit into Utilitarianism, they go together fairly well, with some differences. Have you ever heard of a philosophy series called "blackwell's philosophy and pop culture series"? They take a book/book series, movie, or TV show, and create a book of a collection of essays comparing examples from such parts of the entertainment and using real philosophy categories' and explaining it. I'll give you some examples: "House M.D. and philosophy: everybody lies", "Alice in wonderland: curiouser and curiouser", "The Good Place and Philosophy: Get an Afterlife" (that last one I'm almost finished reading now). I have a pretty large collection of these type of philosophy books. So as I read each chapter in one of those books (one book and one chapter at a time obviously), I write my own philosophical reflection based off that chapter I just read.

[Veganman]

Hi Lindsay, I have heard about Blackwell's philosophy, I rather like the South Park one but I have yet to see the others. Do they do a Winnie the Poo episode? I think you're rather lucky living in Florida, but only for the climate, the politics suck don't they! Wales has beautiful countryside but the weather is pretty bad most of the time. Our politics don't seem too different these days though, apart from the death penalty, that hasn't been brought back yet! Lol. I've been to New York, many years ago, but not Florida or Connecticut. I forgot to mention that I'm also interested in aesthetics, which I suppose goes with my interest in the visual imagery of art. I also have a large collection of books on philosophical themes, I'm also interested in the philosophy of evil, an example being Hannah Arendt, probably because I worked mostly in the forensic area of psychiatry/psychology. But so too because, as Tolstoy said: "As long as there are slaughterhouses there will be battlefields." I believe that while speciesism exists (like sexism and racism) we'll never have a chance of getting to grips with evil. In respect of your interest in "care ethics" you may like a book called: "Neither Man Nor Beast" by Carol J. Adams, subtitled - Feminism and the defence of animals. You'll have to excuse my ignorance here as the book may not really be related to "care ethics," but I think it may be. I will reply to your PM tomorrow, it's getting rather late here now.

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

Hey veganman,
I actually loathe the climate in Florida, and I would move if I could. but I'm financially stuck in this state. I prefer regular seasons because my favorite seasons were fall and winter but Florida doesn't really have that here. Fall is beautiful in Connecticut, plus my favorite way to dress is hoodies and sweatpants...can't wear those here, even in winter. My birthday is in January, and my first year here it was 98 degrees on my birthday in the middle of "winter". Let's trade locations
Philosophy of evil sounds interesting, I haven't given it much thought till you just posted that, but I definitely am curious to learn about the premise of it all. Hope you sleep/slept well!

[Veganman]

The less clothes the better for me, maybe we should swap places! Lol. Seriously though, I couldn't live in a hot climate, I love the sun, but not the heat. I did when I was younger, but not these days. I like the different seasons too, which you certainly get here, but there's too much rain, like today for example, when it didn't stop for twelve hours. The philosophy of evil is very interesting, the key word being "empathy," or rather the absence of it. I actually wrote a sort of dystopian philosophical novel several years ago called: "The Empathy Spectrum," it was crap but quite an experience writing it. The book is out of print now, thankfully, but last time I looked Amazon had one copy left. Please don't buy it if it's still there, waste your money on something else! Lol. Anyway, during one of my brighter periods I came up with a definition of evil that seems quite appropriate. I'll PM it to you next week. Time to go off to Noddy land again now, fortunately I always sleep well, it's staying awake I have problems with.

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

That's an interesting coincidence that you say you wrote a book and it actually got published, I've been published small-time before (meaning magazines and newspapers and such). But it's been a while. I'm finally getting started on my first book, I'm planning on turning it into a series. It's fantasy/action/sci-fi though. So, fiction lol. I write in a few different categories. Articles, short stories, poems, philosophical reflections, etc. But this is the first time I'm attempting to write a book. My short-stories for over 15 years have trained me for this so I hope when I eventually finish the manuscript it comes out well. Right now I'm almost done developing the main character premise profiles. I'm using this book off Amazon for this purpose; I bought a book called "Character Development Journal: Journal's for authors" By Sweet Harmony Press.

[Veganman]

So you're a writer and a published one at that ... well done Lindsay! And, as I'm sure you know, writing is a really good form of therapy. However, the downside is having to deal with the rejections, and there'll probably be loads of those. You obviously know more about writing than me, considering how long you've been doing it, but a lot of people are taking to self publishing these day, particularly with Amazon, and setting up their own websites ... just an idea. Maybe I'll get a chance to read something you've written one if these days. If I can give you some advice on writing it's: never stop and never give up on becoming successful.

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

I appreciate that advice, "never stop, never give up". I need to remember that. One very famous author, J.K. Rowling, She was writing her Harry Potter series homeless on the train, getting rejected constantly for a long time till someone said yes. And look at her now! I'll try as best as I can, despite my mental health issues. #perserverance #fortitude #feedingmysoul

[Veganman]

Lindsay,
Before you said anything about writing I did notice the quality of your posts and your PM. I used to spend a lot of time on social media, mainly promoting my novel, and I came to the conclusion that most people weren't much good at putting a sentence together, not to mention their grammar! But, in your case, you certainly do have such abilities and they are immediately noticeable. Anyway, I've been trying to think of one thing to tell you about writing a novel that I thought really helped, and one thing that, in my opinion, was a mistake. The first is that I used to email people a lot, long emails, talking about all sorts of things, and what I found was that these emails improved my writing skills, they were like having regular exercise in order to keep fit. The second thing is that, when writing a novel, there's a great temptation to spice it up by adding sex scenes. This can very often be a big mistake, and I think it was my main one. Years ago such scenes were common practice, the idea that sex sells, like, Fifty Shades ... etc, but if the main theme of your novel isn't sexual, and mine wasn't, then the inclusion of such "spicing up" can often detract the reader from the themes you want to get over, and what your novel is really about. So, in a nutshell, leave them out, or at least keep them to an absolute minimum!

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

Thank you for that compliment! I guess you could say I "talk internet" mostly in text or in facebook messenger to send messages faster. But when it counts I talk/type normally. I take pride in my vocabulary and grammar.
Actually, for my last birthday, I asked my mom to get me one of those huge 80 U.S.D. oxford English dictionaries. I've started from the beginning letter "A", and going through each word, skipping the ones I already knew, and writing down 60 words and definitions at a time, and taking a while for me to use them in my writing to memorize them; then: I open back up to my dictionary where I left off, and do it all over again with new words. I'm what you would call an autodidact.
I agree with the sex scene part, it can cheapen a novel, depending on the plot and character arcs and whatnot. I appreciate you reiterating that, like a sticky note That's not where I'm planning on going with this first book. MAYBE somewhere in the series I might describe foreplay or something for a few sentences but that would be as far as I would go...if I would do it at all. Seriously though, thank you for mentioning that, it's good to remember because it hadn't really crossed my mind until you typed that.

[Veganman]

Sounds like you have what it takes to be a writer. I've always loved and been interested in words, and as for literature, I was fascinated by that from a very early age. I must have read hundreds of literary works by now. I can't say I've written much though, even though I once wanted to, life just took me in other directions! Nevertheless, I think I'd still like to write a decent novel before I kick the bucket, so when I finally give up work and find myself wondering what the hell to do with my time, I may just try and do exactly that. Anyway, I'm always happy to discuss writing and literature with you, but if so, we'd best do that by PM as I'm not sure it would be particularly appreciated on a philosophy forum! Lol. I'd join you on Facebook if I was still on there but after several years of, mainly arguing with people, I finally decided that my time could be much better spent doing something else!

[TasteTheInsanity-18]

I'm about to P.M. you back to talk more about our passions for the written word. Sorry I've been busy writing every and all afternoon every day.
I loathe arguing with people myself. It's why I hate the topic of politics, because it's a never-ending battle of juvenile insults and so much more immature retorts. I also avoid the news as much as possible since I was a preteen, because, it's always scary/negative/depressing. SO basically, yeah, I understand what you mean...it's nice to escape from that if and when it is possible.