Philosophy Now Forum

I've never been one to introduce myself in this manner. I've found that, while polite, it's just sort of useless. So people come by and say hello, maybe ask a question or two. Maybe no one comes by at all. I don't know.

One thing I will say is that I have an abundance of experience on message boards. I'm 30 and have been posting at various places (sometimes extensively) for roughly eight years now. Some of you may even know me (by other names, that is) from some of the more popular boards around the net.

I mention this because I'm entering a new phase; that's why I'm here, actually - it serves as a fresh start. (Not that I needed one, or that I'm disliked elsewhere; just a fresh start in a more general sense.) In the past I have cultivated a certain persona, one that was generally friendly and non-confrontational. Sparing details the idea is that now I will attempt with more intensity to be myself - to say what I think when I think it, with more or less a disregard for social (for want of a better term) opinions of me. This is also to say I feel I have been too concerned with how others view me and not concerned enough with genuineness.

This forum, I hope, will in turn serve as a host for my real self.

Such a strategy might blow up in my face, resulting in the very confrontation I have traditionally attempted to avoid; but it may just as soon result in some memorable and fulfilling exchanges. Time will tell.

Otherwise, my background is largely in atheism (though I do not call myself an atheist) including Nietzsche, Marx, Schopenhauer and Feuerbach, as well as George H. Smith, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, etc. I also have considerable interest in Hegel, Hume, Kant, Berkeley and Sartre. Lastly, I've also extensively documented (i.e., I've filled a few journals) an original philosophy that I hope one day can be published, studied and admired.

See ya around.

Hey Truth, nice to meet you.

I tend to voice my views with little regard for what others think or whether it might offend them, and I can say, you do sometimes get confrontations. But you can't let someone's idiocy bug you. Generally it's from people who take offense that you don't care whether or not they take offense, who then perversely seem to actively set out to offend. Strange folk, but I console myself on the basis that offending someone is inevitable, and you can tell when you're on the right track by offending the right people (like christian evangelicals, say).

Hey Psychonaut, pleasure's mine.

I'd say my biggest problem with the persona we're discussing is that I don't want people to dislike me - even if they're idiots, ya know? I'm a nice guy. I like the idea of people looking forward to reading my posts, not cringing at them. At the same time, there's something to be said for brutal honesty, particularly in this setting.

I don't know. The more I think about it the more I'm weary of the possibility that I won't be able to pull it off. We'll see.

Welcome, Truth:

You should enjoy this forum. Psychonaut is a neat guy. He never intentionally tries to offend Christian evangelicals - as that would be morally wrong.

I'd like to ask a favor. Regarding the 'original philosophy' that you mentioned, why not draft an abstract of the philosophy and post it as a message in the forum.

Again, Welcome.

Tom

Hi Tom, and thanks for the welcome.

As for your favor, I don't know that I have the balls to do that just yet. However, to satisfy your curiosity, I might offer that it's a hybrid of meme theory, Berkeley & Hume, template correspondence (cf. Pascal Boyer's Religion Explained), subjectivism (nihilism, perspectivism, Nietzsche), solipsism, hedonism, naturalism, evolutionism, pragmatism and feminism. If you can put all that together (easier than it sounds, imo), you may already have a reasonably clear idea of what I would present anyway.