Philosophy Rodeo

Forums tend to have introduction threads; introduce yourself here so we can get an idea of who you are!

My name's Bob. I'm a 31 year old expat in Indonesia, where I work as a software designer and system administrator and live with my lovely wife and countless cats. Some of my hobbies include gardening, board games, and homebrewing. I got my BSc in Philosophy in 2014 with focuses in logic and epistemology -- Western/analytic tradition -- but I've done extensive readings of early modern philosophy and moderate amounts of reading of the ancients. On the Eastern side of things, I've read some Taoist and Zen texts and a lot of Theravada Buddhist stuff -- most of the canon, many commentaries, some contemporary secondary material.

I felt motivated to launch this forum because there's a serious lack of places for non-professional philosophers to discuss philosophy online. Reddit and Discord simply don't provide the kind of structure or sense of community that traditional messageboards do, I think. If we can grow big enough, I'd really like to do regular zoom calls, or maybe we could work toward publishing a magazine. Before COVID-19, I was regularly running free classes on Western philosophy (putting my grad school experience to good use!) and we frequently had more than 20 people show up to our meetings from all backgrounds and we all had great, long discussions that would often stretch on past midnight!

Now more than ever, people are being exposed to philosophical concepts through pop culture and social media and are becoming curious about philosophy, but the field of philosophy remains inaccessible outside of universities, and tends to be rather elitist within universities. And there is a need of philosophy in helping us deal with the state of the modern world -- as Wittgenstein said, "philosophy is therapy." So I hope that aside from providing a space to discuss and produce philosophical content, we can also be an accessible entry into the world of philosophy.

In that regard I would like to pay respects to three living philosophers who try to make philosophy more accessible:

• Ben Burgis / Philosophy for the People
• Seth Tichenor / Philosofarian
• Peter Boghossian / Street Epistemology

I'm akai, 31 years old, living/trapped on Long Island, NY. Take the good with the bad.

Philosophy, spiritualism, and other thoughts:
I would say I flip between interests in (moral) nihilism and post-structuralism/post-modern thought. I don't have any real preference in philosophy or any labels for myself, but I would say (dialectic) materialism makes most sense to me on a logical level. I enjoy spiritualism too, and I have an array of interests in religions. I mostly specialize in Germanic/Norse/Anglo-saxon mythology, and I enjoy Odin as I think wisdom is the mending I need to cope and continue to learn in this struggle called life. I enjoy Buddhism as well, and found the meditations and daily readings I find online to be pretty helpful to my perspectives on impermanence and suffering.

Other:
I am currently a student, majoring in Computer Science. I will more than likely be pursuing Pure Mathematics as well, or Applied math with a track in computer science. I am generally undecided at the moment, as it is contingent upon being accepted into different programs. School is very competitive now. I do not like school at all, and feel like I am wasting my time there more than half the time. Nonetheless, I do like a lot of the perks of student life, and I maintain a scholarship so it would feel odd to just leave that opportunity to the dust.

I have a lot of hobbies, which mostly revolve around mathematics, computers, puzzles, or stuff that requires me to use my hands (mechanics, electronics, sometimes chemistry). I like to learn about anything, as no door should ever be left closed forever.

Conclusion:
My goal here is to expand my writing skills, as well as use philosophy as a way to refine my inner thoughts. Hopefully, this forum is a good mental gym for me.

This is the start to my work as a part-time philosopher,
A blog post, small abstract paper work
"Reflection on digital era & free software: Foucaultian-style discourse" https://unluckylisp.com/blog/posts/reflection-1.html

Hello, I'm Ziggy!

I'm just another weird kid from the outskirts of São Paulo. I'm 23, and been using the internet for most of my life. As you may tell by my nickname I'm a big fan of music, especially when it comes to rock and its subgenres. Most of my day is spent listening to records and songs from my favorites artists. Folks like My Bloody Valentine, Mew, Belle and Sebastian, and many others! Good music is air for the soul, and nothing better than to breath those sounds through our eardrums with quality speakers and headphones. As joining is usually better than watching, I also play the saxophone and make some dreadful noisy mistakes with the guitar. I can't help myself! XD

Other hobbies I have are literature, videogames, photography, language learning, weightlifting and meditation. I'm little box of surprises--filled with energy and always ready to look out for something new to learn and enjoy. That usually comes with the pains of being a lousy jack of all trades in some of those activities, but I'm slowly working to change that and become a more focused person overall (which has been thankfully working!)

I've come across this forum on the gikopoi chatroom, which in turn I came across on a youtube video of a The Magnetic Fields song. Thinking about it, that sounds like those crazy twists of fate; a single drop of water causing a ripple effect on the lake. Who knows what may happen?

I decided to join the Rodeo so I could both learn more about philosophy and meet new people. Every one of us have something thoughtful to share each other. What's better then, than joining a community of wisdom thirsty folks willing to share their experiences and knowledge?

Nice to meet you all! Here's for a nice one~

よろしくお願いします!