wleg wrote:I am thinking out loud, attempting to understand how it might be possible to use this forum to test a prototype of a future “New Philosophy” forum that collects ideas to advance philosophical knowledge. The ideas must be connected in systematic order in a thread for the sum total of the ideas to create the knowledge. Obviously, ideas submitted that are of no value will clog up the ‘thread’, and there is no way I can delete them. The problem of senseless ideas clogging up the collection effort seems almost impossible to solve, but there may be a way.
First, the 'purpose' of constructing the knowledge must be clearly established.Thus, anyone who summits an idea is aware of ‘the purpose’ and can better judge for themselves if their ideas relate to that purpose.
Second, everyone must understand, that since their ideas are the result of their mental activity, their ‘ideas illustrate their state of mind'. Recognizing our ideas expressed in statements illustrate our ‘state of mind’ might establish some incentive to limit ‘senseless statements’.
Third, everyone understands their propositional statements have a ‘subject’ and a ‘predicate’ and each must ‘relate to the existence of the other’ plus relate to the existence of the specific knowledge being constructed. Else, the statements will be gibberish, demonstrating state of mind, and certainly not construct knowledge.
Constructing original knowledge is a tenuous stop and go process easy to derail, particularly when the knowledge being constructed is abstract and not about physical things where the physical senses can be utilized. The only tool available to construct ‘original philosophical knowledge’ is ‘systematic reasoning’ which no one is born with and has to learn.
This prototype project I hope will demonstrate the systematic process necessary to construct the knowledge everyone needs to understand the process of systematic/rational reasoning. This is the 'purpose' of the project and everyone can judge for themselves if their ideas conform to this 'purpose'.
Wayne Kelly Leggette Sr.
Wayne,
Your goals are admirable, but welcome to the real world. Maybe we can kick around alternative ideas.
What if PNow established an elite class of forum, modeled on the style of British men's clubs. Here are some standards for such a forum, which would be unique in the entire world of internet forums.
1. Require a membership fee consisting of a two-year subscription to Philosophy Now, printed version, to join.
2. Each member will establish a forum account of $100 US minimum. Thus eliminating the riff-raff.
3. Each OP (Opening Poster) pays a fee of $20 for every thread that he initiates, automatically deducted from his account. This will either eliminate the glut of irrelevant nits who fill sections with irrelevant threads, or turn a profit for the Forum Sponsor.
4. Each commenter will pay 0.50 per post, deducted automatically from his account. No account, no comment.
5. Administrators will not patrol this forum or respond to complaints.
6. Every OP has the option to exclude any other poster from all threads that he initiates, simply by putting that person on his personal shit list.
7. The forum will see to it that the same individual will not reappear under different handles, permanently eliminating all who attempt this ploy.
8. There will be no restrictions on someone who has been banned by a particular poster from initiating threads dedicated to whining about that poster. However, such threads must be initiated in a special "Whining" section of the forum, and will require a $20 fee per thread.
These seem plenty enough rules.
I envision awesome potential for such a forum. At best it could include interesting subjects that transcend philosophy. For example, every physics-related forum that I've tried comes down hard on any poster who challenges conventional physics theories. That would not be the case on the proposed toll-road forum. It might lead to the discovery of new physics principles. Such principles coming out of a philosophy-sponsored forum would be a significant coup for philosophy in general.
The idea is that a toll-road forum could become a FORUM for INNOVATION, unfettered by the pinheads who cannot contribute to new ideas, having never had one.
For example, I can drive through Illinois using the state's toll roads, paying a few extra bucks. Or I can drive through Illinois using free highways and back roads, where I'll spend a lot of time driving behind Farmer John, or slow 18-wheelers bypassing the truck scales.
Imagine how cool it would be to participate in a thread whose other participants were there to make contributions-- to get where we all want to go-- rather than deal with mindless posts by nitwits who think that they own the intellectual road, and try to block to passage of anyone going faster than them.
There will be many who will initiate threads under these rules and screw up their own threads by banning all who dissent from their opinions. Fair enough; they paid their $20 for a bullshit platform to which few will reply. Natural selection will rule here. They'll get tired of their silly nonsense, in time.
BTW, I proposed this idea to Rick a month or so ago. No response, so it won't happen here. With some outside support, I'd consider taking on the project. The problem is, I think that such a forum would be best run under the umbrella of an established source of ideas, such as PNow. Its current forum, open to any ignorant nits who choose to enter, would remain unaffected by the introduction of a membership-only forum. The founding of membership-only clubs where men can gather for conversation in a convivial environment free of riff-raff has never been shown to impact the economic survival of pubs and saloons where the riffs can freely gather to complain about the ways of the raffs.
