The Philosophy Now Forum

Hello all,

Barry here, from Derby. I taught secondary school maths for thirty years and since retiring I've finally had time to read the philosophy I always meant to. Started with Russell's History of Western Philosophy, now working my way through Hume and getting stuck on personal identity, which I gather is normal.

I've subscribed to Philosophy Now for a couple of years and only recently found the forum. Looking forward to some good arguments.

Barry

welcome, Hume is fun for inductive reasoning...

-Imp

Welcome Barry from Derby. Russell's history is a fine place to start, and Hume is essential. Along with The Bluffer's Guide to Philosophy, Jim Hankinson, also essential, I would recommend Descartes's Discourse on the Method; it's worth it just for the opening line: "Good sense is, of all things among men, the most equally distributed; for every one thinks himself so abundantly provided with it, that those even who are the most difficult to satisfy in everything else, do not usually desire a larger measure of this quality than they already possess."
Really getting your teeth into that, along with Descartes's Meditations, is analogous to a music student playing their scales. Being a mathematician himself, Descartes's objective was to create axioms on which to build a logical edifice like Euclid's Elements. Most people agree that, while it is possible to squeeze it further, 'I think, therefore I am' is a sound axiom. The problem is that he couldn't find any others to match.
The two poles of philosophy since then, and in fact before, though less overtly, is the idea that pure reason can produce truth about the real world, and the alternative view that only by observing it will nature reveal itself to you. Pure maths and applied maths, if you like.

Hello Barry and welcome to the bear garden that is our forum!

If you are looking for the warm companionship of like minds, I can confidently predict you will not find it here. Here we have a collection of competitive egos, few of whom are capable either of sustaining a proper argument or of recognising when they have been met with a better one. The result can be exasperating and dispiriting, and you may find that you lose the appetite for it and stop visiting. Or you may find that you can ignore the chaff and the flack and focus on the purveyors of worth—maybe half a dozen honest thinkers—who will treat you with respect and whom you will come to respect in return.

I've been coming here since I was in kindergarten. I'm glad you made it.

BarryD28 wrote: ↑Sat Oct 24, 2026 12:27 pm Hello all,

Barry here, from Derby. I taught secondary school maths for thirty years and since retiring I've finally had time to read the philosophy I always meant to. Started with Russell's History of Western Philosophy, now working my way through Hume and getting stuck on personal identity, which I gather is normal.

I've subscribed to Philosophy Now for a couple of years and only recently found the forum. Looking forward to some good arguments.

Barry

Welcome aboard, Barry. Identity- we could have a good conversation on that one. I have a view David Hume never covered