The Philosophy Discussion Forum

Hi all,
I was on the forum a while ago but got a bit lost in many ways and dropped off… I’m back reading philosophy and currently trying to study philosophy of religion and ethics. I’m interested in small discussion groups online or a 1-2-1 accountability type partner who could comment on my rather misnamed ‘essays’… I need to try and get some structure into my study rather than just reading randomly and going off on tangents. Advice and ideas welcomed.
Anne

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:41 pm Hi all,
I was on the forum a while ago but got a bit lost in many ways and dropped off… I’m back reading philosophy and currently trying to study philosophy of religion and ethics. I’m interested in small discussion groups online or a 1-2-1 accountability type partner who could comment on my rather misnamed ‘essays’… I need to try and get some structure into my study rather than just reading randomly and going off on tangents. Advice and ideas welcomed.
Anne

Just curious...what are your "essays" for, and why are you writing them? What are the problems you perceive to be in them, as they stand?

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:41 pm Hi all,
I was on the forum a while ago but got a bit lost in many ways and dropped off… I’m back reading philosophy and currently trying to study philosophy of religion and ethics. I’m interested in small discussion groups online or a 1-2-1 accountability type partner who could comment on my rather misnamed ‘essays’… I need to try and get some structure into my study rather than just reading randomly and going off on tangents. Advice and ideas welcomed.
Anne

Fire something up in the ethics sub and I am sure we can help out. Just go with what you've got and see where it takes you.

I can't personally offer anything for the religion stuff, I couldn't care much less about that subject if I were the devil himself.

Hi Immanuel and Flash,
I’ve been following various philosophers on Patreon and Substack and they all say that the best way to learn something and/or be sure you understand it is to write a short essay. But the problem is if no one comments on the ‘essays’ then how do you know if you’ve understood at all… I’m in the early stages of this study so looking at ‘proofs’ of God’s existence… and the problem of evil… the basics… I’m not a religious sort at all but the evangelical growth in the Americas etc has got me interested in ‘why’ people believe…
Anne

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 9:23 pm Hi Immanuel and Flash,
I’ve been following various philosophers on Patreon and Substack and they all say that the best way to learn something and/or be sure you understand it is to write a short essay. But the problem is if no one comments on the ‘essays’ then how do you know if you’ve understood at all… I’m in the early stages of this study so looking at ‘proofs’ of God’s existence… and the problem of evil… the basics… I’m not a religious sort at all but the evangelical growth in the Americas etc has got me interested in ‘why’ people believe…
Anne

LOL, oh dear. As a completely irreligious kind of guy, I don't really indulge in that end of things, I don't even care enough about the subject to bother deciding if I am an agnostic or an atheist, so I won't be all that helpful. Luckily mister Can is a religious nutjob of the highest order and he's absolutely going to take this all over for you. If there's the prospect of a conversion, you are likely to witness him attempting to be charming, which is hilarious, so enjoy that.

The only snippet of wisdom I am able to provide is this. In philosophy people get caught up expecting arguments to do heavy lifting that they cannot actually do. One person might take away from the PoE the notion that it proves a certain version of God cannot possibly exist, while another will claim it only proves the first person doesn't understand the nature of God at all. The one will end up using it to justify their refusal to believe in a loving God who could let children die of cancer, and the other will use his escape from that trap to show something about the Will and Nature of God that makes his personal religious convictions the one and only correct set of faiths.

As long as everyone involved understands that arguments about religion only ever persuade those who choose to be persuaded by them, because none can ever really have true logical force or sufficient justification unless God actually intervenes himself, which neither side of the debate seems to expect, then it's all no harm no foul.

Isaiah Berlin used to say something to the effect that philosophy is a study of questions we not only don't know how to answer yet, but also don't yet know how to recognise the correct answer if somebody stumbles across it. Which is true, we stop treating questions we know how to answer as philosophy and export them to some other field of study like the sciences. So if philosophers have argued over something like the problem of evil for thousands of years (which I understand to be the case), there's a strong chance that no answer is available, and also that the question is broken. But good news, that applies to the rest of philosophy too. So, have some fun with it.

Thank you ~ I love that Berlin quote about not recognising the answer ~ that’s how I feel every day I’m going to go do some reading

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 10:23 pm Thank you ~ I love that Berlin quote about not recognising the answer ~ that’s how I feel every day I’m going to go do some reading

Well, I am interested in the same things you are...theology, ethics, apologetics. So maybe I can suggest something.

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:41 pm Hi all,
I was on the forum a while ago but got a bit lost in many ways and dropped off… I’m back reading philosophy and currently trying to study philosophy of religion and ethics. I’m interested in small discussion groups online or a 1-2-1 accountability type partner who could comment on my rather misnamed ‘essays’… I need to try and get some structure into my study rather than just reading randomly and going off on tangents. Advice and ideas welcomed.
Anne

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 9:23 pm I’m in the early stages of this study so looking at ‘proofs’ of God’s existence… and the problem of evil… the basics… I’m not a religious sort at all but the evangelical growth in the Americas etc has got me interested in ‘why’ people believe…
Anne

Hello Anne, I'm also interested in these topics and would enjoy having the opportunity to discuss them with you. (I also do better in the one-on-one or smaller groups than in these large public forum discussions. I'm new to this forum but have been active in the past in other similar ones.) I've actually just recently completed a very interesting 4-week continuing ed course taught by a local retired philosophy and theology professor about the arguments for and against the existence of God, so it's still kind of fresh in my mind. Hope to talk more and hear about your ideas on the subject.

Welcome Anne, and welcome Thomyum2 !

thomyum2 wrote: ↑Fri Apr 03, 2026 12:19 am

AMag wrote: ↑Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:41 pm I’m in the early stages of this study so looking at ‘proofs’ of God’s existence… and the problem of evil… the basics… I’m not a religious sort at all but the evangelical growth in the Americas etc has got me interested in ‘why’ people believe…
Anne

Hello Anne, I'm also interested in these topics and would enjoy having the opportunity to discuss them with you. (I also do better in the one-on-one or smaller groups than in these large public forum discussions. I'm new to this forum but have been active in the past in other similar ones.) I've actually just recently completed a very interesting 4-week continuing ed course taught by a local retired philosophy and theology professor about the arguments for and against the existence of God, so it's still kind of fresh in my mind. Hope to talk more and hear about your ideas on the subject.

If you want input from the perspective of somebody who is "on the inside" of that quation, I'm happy to offer what perspective I can. Sometimes it's easier to ask questions to an "insider" than to inspect things merely "from the outside."

But I'll leave that up to the discretion of you both. I'm here, is the point. Ask anything, if you're curious. I'll do my best to answer.

Thanks all, I’m reading and trying to keep several things in my head simultaneously… harder as I get older also reading A Level revision books as background…

AMag wrote: ↑Thu Apr 09, 2026 6:13 pm Thanks all, I’m reading and trying to keep several things in my head simultaneously… harder as I get older also reading A Level revision books as background…

stop

read one thing- understand it
read it again - understand it differently

ruminate
repeat with other things

don't rush it- it takes time to read and understand

you don't have to compare Kant with Leibniz or Hobbes right out of the gate

(you can always get some balloons filled with helium to enhance your oral recitations of certain texts... puts a different spin on Nietzsche...)

-Imp

Thanks Imp… I think my problem is that I choose something to read ~ either a book or a paper ~ and that mentions another book, then I think I should maybe read that first… then I read them recommending something… then… then then… it’s like I wanted to read Dante but maybe needed to read Anneid first but before that I need to read Homer and what about Paradise Lost… can’t study theology/philosophy of religion without reading Aquinas but then maybe I should start with Augustine and I go round in endless circles reading bits of stuff and learning nothing… trying to find a syllabus that suits me and then I’d struggle to stick to it

try starting with a copy of "Looking at philosophy- the unbearable heaviness of philosophy made lighter" by Donald Palmer

that book mentions virtually everyone (little secret to philosophy- most books are written in response to another philosopher)

don't worry about what you haven't read- no one has read everything

-Imp

Thanks Imp, I’ll check that out now