A brief introduction

As the note at the beginning says this blog is here as part of my attempt to come to terms with Kantian philosophy. As such I will be venting a few ideas here to see how they sound, testing some of the details, listening to contributions and criticisms (should anyone feel like raising any) and hopefully refining my account of these theories. So this is meant to be a kind of stomping ground to assist in writing my first ever honest-to-goodness post-grad thesis. However I should point out that I don't intend what I write here to be taken as anything even remotely close to high brow academic text. Far from it. Part of my success will depend on my being able to explain myself to as many people as possible. So I want to be making statements that are as clear and as easy to follow as possible under the circumstances. And as most of my colleagues know, I do have a strong tendency to try and cram even the most convoluted and sophisticated of theories into common everyday speak. Probably so that I can still say it when I am drunk. Thus if you do feel like contributing to this blog then aside from providing the well thought out and insightful questions, observations and criticisms of which I am sure you are more than capable, it would also be constructive to hear comments like "Wot's that bit mean?". Hopefully this will prompt me to try and thin out the academic-speak a little more and start speaking in plain English.

A further note that should be made concerns a not uncommon side-effect of debating philosophy. Believe it or not, there have been several instances during the history of philosophy where people have taken offence. This may be due to their revulsion at the content of what is being said ("NO Jesus does NOT hate me!") or because they have felt that someones rebuttal of their opinion was unduly harsh, disrespectful, degrading or otherwise personally insulting ("Well I don't think you needed to say it like THAT"). For myself and on behalf on everyone who writes something here, if you are someone who, at some stage, does take offence please try to remember that our efforts here are not a personal attack on you. I know that this can sometimes be difficult for some people given the nature of some of the subject matter of philosophy. However even though I know the dangers involved I want to press on regardless and risk the impending wrath of the mob. So if you do find yourself getting hot under the collar with myself or any other contributor here then I advise that you 1) take a break from this blog for a while, come back after you have cooled off; 2) stay angry and write your retort but remember that your comments may still be methodically picked to pieces by your antagonist thus making you even more angry; 3) abuse the crap out of me if it makes you feel better, I'm big and tuff so I can take it; 4) prepare some hemlock and wait for a sympathetic council to bring the offending party to justice.

Introductions over. Let's get on with it.