There are no strict content standards here. In fact most of it is laypeople arguing with varying degrees of knowledge and rhetorical ability.

Some really good content exists, though obviously the amount of work involved in creating such content means there'll be on average more rapid fire debate than thought out comments.

Well, one of my initial impressions was that this was more like a social club for liberals and other progressives who tend to be overprotective of leftist narratives and sometimes employ language that is too technical or unnecessarily complex when more simple forms of communication and discussion would be just fine. Personally, I don't frequent forums much as I prefer face-to-face communication and email works OK for most of my purposes. But I did get some helpful answers to my first question and once you get used to it I suppose it is as good a forum as others.

Fair enough, sounds interesting. :)

Its not really great philosophical practice to be politically biased, unless you have logic or facts to back it up.
Sounds like the fallacy of ambiguity, but even that is a google search away.

Its not really great philosophical practice to be politically biased, unless you have logic or facts to back it up. — Tiberiusmoon

I agree. People shouldn't be attacked for pointing out inconsistencies in Marxist theory. There should be no political bias.

Well, it's a playground for religious fanatics as well, and for hard-headed right-wing capitalists who spearhead libertarian values, by decrying those aspects of Marxist-Leninist communist economic mechanisms and social values that they haven't a slightest clue about.

To some extent it's what you make it. What would you like it to be?

A place to share philosophy, the views and comments of various perspectives.

Any particular branch of philosophy?

:up: Exactly, well said.

@Tiberiusmoon As he & Apollodurus said, this is why rodeo clowns like me play / work this sandbox. Good trouble contra dogmatists and interesting, even fun, if you're well-read and a dialectical, defeasible, thinker. No answers here, just (shared) attempts at formulating better, or more probative, questions. (And shaming occasional stupidities ~Deleuze) Welcome and stay awhile.

I'm kind of an outlier of this forum, as I just use it to ramble, but I think that the goal of The Philosophy Forum is to facilitate a kind of erudite and nuanced discussion, the likes of which you could find on a forum like r/CriticalTheory, but often becomes a tangential foray within this or that person's exploration of mania particular to philosophers, of which I am only fairly exemplary.

I like that it is open to everyone and without the rather arbitrary rules you will find on Reddit, but the gripe that the mods have that the discussion almost invariably becomes completely off-topic is somewhat well founded.

The qualm that I have it are merely reflective of online discourse as a whole, which is that people often think that what they say on the internet just does not matter and fail to realize that the person on the other side of the other computer screen is actually a person, and, so, can occasionally become fairly denigrating by that account.

Being said, it's probably the best forum for discussion online and, even though some of the mods fail to realize that my rapport with libcom is now fairly good and it is another set of rather arcane left-intellectuals that I have both personal and political qualms with, I am glad that it exists and do think that there should be more users of it from all walks of life and philosophical or political perspectives.

Though all in all, a good forum, as some of the discussion requires kind of a lot of time and effort, I would, perhaps, warn against using it compulsively. There's ultimately not really anywhere else to go to have a good discussion about Philosophy, though. Even r/CriticalTheory, which I think is the second-best philosophy forum online, is of this sort of way where it's kind of like, if you don't have a graduate degree, you can just forget about engaging in the discussion.

I don't know. If you look past a certain set of mismatched personalities, it's not at all a bad place to chat it up. I'd say that it's a pretty good forum, which by that I think that it's the best forum on the internet, ought to be indicative of that I am fairly pessimistic of discourse online in general. It is pretty good, though.

Wrt to 180, be advised that's about as close to standard English as he gets. For the rest he sometimes seems to orbit the planet e.e. cummings. You could do much worse than to just read his comments alone.

@Tiberiusmoon

defeasible — 180 Proof

And it's a place to learn interesting and useful new words.

Thanks :D

Or is this like Reddits philosophy subs where you only discuss academic philosophies and cant give a "up to standard" comment unless it refrences or explains existing philosophies that basically recycles information in some wierd elitist mentality. — Tiberiusmoon

We do have content standards, but the bar is much much lower; both in tone and content; than academic discussion. We want this to be a space where people can play around with ideas, sharpen their wits and rhetorical skill, and study stuff together.

This is a place where someone is wrong about something interesting on the internet. And that someone is often you (and me). It's also sometimes a place where you can ask academic questions or make academic arguments about philosophy and receive further academically grounded answers. But you can't count on it, and we don't require it.

I think the place would lose much of its charm if we enforced high standards for content - be reasonably polite, put a bit of effort into your grammar and spelling, try and be thoughtful, don't troll, try and stay on topic. Being knowledgeable about things is just gravy.

Usual stuff.

It's the worst philosophy forum apart from all the others. The old forum died but Jamalrob reanimated its remains.

Considering that more than two human beings are involved, it's about the best you can hope for...

... in the end (and similar to nearly all communication), most are seeking affirmation vis a vis the slippery notion of existence.

The tone is mostly amazingly civil here. You can find many really knowlegeable people and enlightening discussions and debates. Some content is obviously less interesting but by and large an excellent forum and community I have found.