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[wigglechase]

Hey everyone, my name is Chase. I got into philosophy through a desire to world build about a year ago.
I used to think that philosophy was like religion without the rituals and practices, assuming philosophy was simply to be 'believed' through a kind of faith.
I also used to think philosophy had to have 'empirical proof' like science.
After that point I struggled to wrap myself around philosophy but I never gave up. I really wanted to know and understand.
I spent a lot of time reading Wikipedia articles, YouTube videos, online philosophy encyclopedias, dedicated sites, etc.
Reading philosophy wasn't enough for me so I decided to learn how to DO philosophy.

I got into basic informal logic and then I read The Socratic Method by Ward Farnsworth which changed me.
The Socratic Method by Ward Farnsworth showed me that philosophy isn't about 'winning debates' or 'defending ones beliefs' but rather coming to a greater understand among two people.
It's dialectic and what is formed after a Socratic exchange is a kind of synthesis, that synthesis being a greater or higher understanding.
I learned about how the Socratic method worked and it helped me seriously critically think for the first time.
This book also helped me realize that objective truth could be found but not ABSOLUTE TRUTH but rather MORE objective truth.
Socrates (and Farnsworth) helped me question my assumptions in a systematic way that felt FUN and EXCITING.
During and after reading the book I'd write my own Socratic/Platonic dialogues so practice using the method on myself. I still do this.
It's awesome to see where a thought can go by thinking hard over questions that seem like 'common sense' but when thought out it becomes something MORE.
Ever since I read and studied that book for about a month I have a pretty egalitarian conception of philosophy. I believe it's for anyone!

I love Socrates so much. For me he is philosophy incarnate and the fact that this guy did philosophy orally without ever writing anything down is cool to me.
He also had FUN doing philosophy in his pursuit of finding more objective truths. This is why I think he was also pretty sarcastic and goofy a lot of the time.
And most importantly Socrates showed me that just because you think you know doesn't mean you really know. The unexamined life is not worth living and now I question myself more than ever.
Questioning myself everyday, realizing I know much less than I thought helped me avoid falling into a Dunning-Kruger kind of situation. The ignorant are ignorant of their own ignorance; double or compounded ignorance.
I do my best everyday to engage in philosophy and to live out philosophy. It's become my life now at this point and I don't want to look back (Plato's Cave reference???).

I could talk about this all day but I don't want to make my intro too long so I share what interests me most.
I'm all over the place. I like ethics, metaphysics (especially ontology and phenomenology), epistemology, aesthetics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of history. Psychoanalysis is also pretty neat. Oh and Joseph Campbell's philosophy of myth (is this a thing?).
I don't really care for logic or rhetoric (think Aristotle or Cicero) as much. However, I may look into this more in the future because I understand logic to be especially important. Computation wouldn't be possible without philosophy and logic!
Philosophy of language and math is interesting but I'm honestly self-aware of how bad I am with subjects like linguistics and math so these branches of philosophy aren't the first things on my mind,

Here are schools of thought that interest me in particular because they've shaped my own philosophy. I like to synthesize things into my own and forever change things up gradually.
Stoicism interests me because of Ward Farnsworth making a connection between Socrates and the Stoics. The concept of eudaimonia was introduced to me through Stoicism and I've adopted it into my own personal philosophy.
Existentialism interests me because I like the idea of overcoming societal objectivism superimposed on me and forming my own meaning. The pursuit of meaning is the meaning for me but it's also more than this. I'd discuss more about my personal philosophy but this isn't the appropriate place and besides I feel I'd have to write a document on it instead because it's a lot lol.
Pragmatism interests me because the idea of concepts like truth to be used like a tool for practical purposes resonates with me. Philosophy is done through understanding the utility of things and I like when things are useful.

I also like some empirical sciences like anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Evolutionary biology too.

Aside from this I like listening to ambient electronic music like Boards of Canada, Brian Eno, and Aphex Twin.
Retro gaming is a passion of mine too but it's being slowly replaced because I prefer to spend time reading and reflecting now. My time is limited since daily life and survival take a good portion of my time.
I also was into world building and speculative fiction a lot but I feel more drawn to philosophy because it quite literally helps me grow to be and become my best self.
Or rather it helps me pursue the continual act of being and becoming through questioning my assumptions.
Through this I can understand myself better and then through that I can love myself truly. Then from there I am TRULY being. If I can truly be then I can understand others better and from there truly BELONG.
But I place more emphasis on myself since using something like the Socratic method can lead you to being served hemlock (or being bitched at lol). I still think you could still understand others better (closest friends or family especially) GENERALLY or broadly speaking though.

Okay I feel I've said enough for an intro.
Thank you guys for having me!