Hello, World!

[thebeardslastcall]

I've been liberty and philosophy minded for quite a long time. I went through the political libertarian phase and moved on after realizing it was just a stepping stone to true freedom. I was already into freedom before I supported political libertarianism, so I wasn't particularly attached to it and was able to move past it easily. For the past several years in particular I've been evolving and learning a lot after the unfree world gave me a bit of a boot to the face (not literally), which pushed me to explore freedom more deeply. It has been a rewarding journey so far.

 

I learned of Stefan Molyneux around the beginning of 2014, watching some of his Youtube videos. Around the beginning of May I decided to start listening to his podcasts and have been slowly working my way through the 'best of' series ( https://emergingrenaissance.wordpress.com/best-of-freedomain-radio/  -- currently around podcast 1120). I avoided listening to them for a chunk of this year and have resumed listening to them again more recently. I'm currently writing a book and wanted to focus on that and not listen to too many outside ideas while I tried to focus and clarify my own ideas. This allowed me to bring my own words and ideas out and now I've begun listening to more external material again as I seek to refine and evolve my ideas and my writing. The book is still a work in progress as I refine my writing, ideas, and the focus of the book. It currently stands at about 90k words, farely sizeable, but I have much editing left to do. If you're curious what it's about I uploaded a document with just the beginning pages, including the title page and table of contents. This gives a very rough idea of what the book is about: 

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0GQN_nG55kXVXczVlpnODVxZHM/view

 

I came here because of the similarity between my book and what is promoted here. I figured it would be a receptive place for my book and for possible help as I work towards completing it and getting it out into the world. I am not yet ready to share any of the chapters.

If you have any tips for writing a book or getting a book published or know of any agents or publishers who may be open to this type of content (long shot I know) I'd appreciate any help. I will be trying to get it published before yielding to having to self-publish (as publishing, were it possible for this book, could greatly enhance readership). Also if you wish to donate to help (though I realize I haven't given much reason to yet, but it would help if you want to now or later once you've seen more) I created a bitcoin account to receive payments: 1NBA1GQiVZ73W2FyzHeTAffywbYx66PeH8

If you look at the table of contents you'll notice I have chapters that deal with both free will and determinism. Recently I discovered, by listening to the podcasts, that Mr. Molyneux is quite against determinism, which I found quite interesting. It caught me off guard at first and left me quite curious and wanting to explore more. Since I've been listening to podcasts again I have diverted from the 'best of' list and am focusing on the podcasts that deal with those two topics and the more I've listened to his views on determinism the more excited I have become. I wish to more fully understand his positions on those topics. The reason his position and reasoning excites me is because I hold a different view on the topics, which he so far seems to classify as 'whacky' or the like. When I feel like I can correct or teach a teacher it excites me (yes, this is from childhood!) greatly. In this case I feel I have something unique to bring to the conversation and this makes me want to refine my chapters on the topics even further. I'm tempted to boldly claim I will fundamentally shift his perspective on the topic of determinism, but am trying to learn more so I can give it the respect and attention it deserves as it is obviously a tough nut to crack.

 

My position, to clarify, would probably be classified as some kind of compatibilist (a term I only learned this year as I didn't even know people thought determinism was anti-free-will). So while my desire to 'correct' him on this topic is emotionally driven it is also driven specifically on this topic because I feel I've got a truth and understanding to bring to him and others and I enjoy doing this, both for my ego and because it helps people learn. I have long had a knack for understanding other people's struggles with understanding some topics when the teacher seems to struggle explaining a topic. That the debate has raged here for years and is left unsettled shows he has trouble getting people to understand his point of view. So many people having trouble on the determinist side shows they need help learning why he is right or wrong. I don't want to debate this topic here or now yet, but felt like sharing that as it was an additional motivational reason for coming to the the forums and wanted to be open about that. Also he seems to cast determinists in such a negative light (though I don't know if that includes compatibilists too or just the anti free-willers), so I wanted to give a chipper example of a type of determinist!

I look forward to taking part in the interesting conversations here and getting to learn more from the smart and kind people here!

 

Cheers mates,

 

Anonymous Coward

[Kevin Beal]

Welcome to the boards!

 

I'd prefer not to call you Anonymous Coward, if that's okay with you. I'd feel like a jerk. So I'll just call you AC

 

I'm glad you are so passionate and committed to working through all these really important topics. I saw your table of contents and that's pretty damn ambitious! I wish you luck in getting it published. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about how to get that done.

 

I can relate to your excitement about teaching the teacher. I've got a similar disagreement concerning existence that I'm working hard to fine tune and do it justice.

 

Strangely enough, determinism is actually one of the only topics that is highly discouraged in the forum guidelines. I don't know that anyone has ever been banned for bringing it up, and despite the guideline it does still come up every once in a while. It's a topic I've focused on a lot as well, although it appears we may be on opposite sides of that debate.

 

See you around the boards!

 

Take care

[Frederik]

Greetings! I liked your post. The table of contents looks ambitious indeed and I would be quite tempted to read some of the chapters.

 

I encourage your intent on challanging Stef on determinism. I have not yet looked into that topic.

 

Funnily I'm the third guy in this thread that is trying to bring awareness to a differing viewpoint on a topic. For me it is broadly that of a holistic approach to health and nutrition. I know that an overweight middle-aged cancer-surviver will not be thrilled to hear more about how lifestyle choices are the major influence on health, but with time plus reason and evidence ... we might get there someday

 

In that sense I wish you the best in pursuing what feels right to you. I am certainly open and interested to hear your stance on determinism.

 

Cheers

[thebeardslastcall]

Welcome to the boards!

 

I'd prefer not to call you Anonymous Coward, if that's okay with you. I'd feel like a jerk. So I'll just call you AC

 

Thanks, call me whatever works for you, as I'm 'anonymous'!

 

I'm glad you are so passionate and committed to working through all these really important topics. I saw your table of contents and that's pretty damn ambitious! I wish you luck in getting it published. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about how to get that done.

 

I can relate to your excitement about teaching the teacher. I've got a similar disagreement concerning existence that I'm working hard to fine tune and do it justice.

 

Strangely enough, determinism is actually one of the only topics that is highly discouraged in the forum guidelines. I don't know that anyone has ever been banned for bringing it up, and despite the guideline it does still come up every once in a while. It's a topic I've focused on a lot as well, although it appears we may be on opposite sides of that debate.

 

Ambitious indeed! It has grown into a larger book than I at first thought it would be and continues to expand as I edit. I may have to cut some content to narrow the focus at some point if it gets too large.

 

The interesting thing about teaching the teacher here is that I realized both sides are students and teachers, since we're all trying to learn here. Makes for a very different dynamic than it was back in grade school.

 

And yes I read the forum guidelines before I started posted, which is why I made specific note that I didn't want to discuss it here and now. I also felt that I wanted to be honest about my intentions and that if I could give it the respect it deserves my efforts would be allowed. As for being on opposite sides you didn't seem too confident in your assertion and I don't know your current stances, so it remains to be seen. In that avenue I was actually thinking about eventually down the road, around the time that I'm ready to release my book, doing a carefully crafted survey to see what people's views are going into the book and then again when they are when they come out. To see where the book is effective and ineffective in changing people's views. Also would help to clarify other issues.

 

Listening to podcasts on the topic (which I'm in the process of doing) have helped me refine my understanding of other people's understandings, which I intend to use to help me refine my writing and express my ideas more clearly and to root out some of the core issues I see with the debate. I listened to podcast 286 which was comically entertaining at times, but got a bit ugly at the end, which illuminated some of the reasons I imagine the topic is discouraged here.

 

Greetings! I liked your post. The table of contents looks ambitious indeed and I would be quite tempted to read some of the chapters.

 

I encourage your intent on challanging Stef on determinism. I have not yet looked into that topic.

 

Funnily I'm the third guy in this thread that is trying to bring awareness to a differing viewpoint on a topic. For me it is broadly that of a holistic approach to health and nutrition. I know that an overweight middle-aged cancer-surviver will not be thrilled to hear more about how lifestyle choices are the major influence on health, but with time plus reason and evidence ... we might get there someday

 

In that sense I wish you the best in pursuing what feels right to you. I am certainly open and interested to hear your stance on determinism.

 

Cheers

 

When I'm ready to start sharing chapters this is one of the first places I'm likely to start sharing. It's still in a rough state in many ways. This also means I'm holding back my stance on determinism until I can more clearly express it through my book. I did provide a very rough categorization of my position however in my original post.

 

I take more of a holistic approach to health and nutrition myself! I've been a type of raw vegan for over 5 years now and also get plenty of exercise, sun, and sleep. Not easy getting many people to change their life style ways for sure! There are definitely many open to it though if you simply expose them to the information, like with stateless societies, you just have to find the people with the hunger for health and truth.

 

Thanks for the responses,

[thebeardslastcall]

I can relate to your excitement about teaching the teacher. I've got a similar disagreement concerning existence that I'm working hard to fine tune and do it justice.

 

Have you posted your disagreements anywhere on the board that you could point me to allowing me to read up on your positions and the related discussions? Saying you have a disagreement with existence is so vague it makes me curious what your disagreement could possibly be about exactly.

[Kevin Beal]

Have you posted your disagreements anywhere on the board that you could point me to allowing me to read up on your positions and the related discussions? Saying you have a disagreement with existence is so vague it makes me curious what your disagreement could possibly be about exactly.

Lol. Yea. I see how that would sound weird. Here's one place I bring it up: https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/43196-youtube-what-is-existence/

[DaVinci]

I'm assuming based on your table of contents that you are writing non-fiction. Most of my research into writing, while helpful to me might not be so helpful to you as it focuses on writing fiction. But, hey if it is fiction let me know cause I've started getting a really soild grasp on writing fiction.

 

Welcome to the boards!

[thebeardslastcall]

I'm assuming based on your table of contents that you are writing non-fiction. Most of my research into writing, while helpful to me might not be so helpful to you as it focuses on writing fiction. But, hey if it is fiction let me know cause I've started getting a really soild grasp on writing fiction.

 

Welcome to the boards!

Thanks and you are correct, it is non-fiction.

Lol. Yea. I see how that would sound weird. Here's one place I bring it up: https://board.freedomainradio.com/topic/43196-youtube-what-is-existence/

 

Discussion seems like it is basically the same as one of the confusion points to do with free-will. That is to say some people want to define intangibles, which clearly exist, as non-existent, because they don't materially exist in the same way. This is one of the confusions I hope to clear up in my book.