Welcome everyone to another member interview on philosophyforum.com! Member's interviews provide the opportunity for members to get to know other members a little bit better by answering a small number of questions and saying a little something about themselves.
Today's interviewee is __
VideCorSpoon__ , who has been a member on the forum since __
March 2008__ .
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So what about you? Most of the forum knows you through the profile at the top of every post you make. Tell us about your profile.
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Q1: So tell us a little about your name, why you chose it, what it means, etc.
Quote: My name is a take on Dante Alighieri's La Vita Nuova (the new life),but particularly in reference to the heart's captive soul "A ciascun'alma presa." The small sonnet was in regards to Dante as a young boy of 9 completely captivated with his all-time crush Beatrice. The spoon part is in reference to a hilariously inappropriate joke.
Q2: Tell us a little about your avatar. Does it mean anything special to you?
Quote: My avatar depicts a skull with a crown with a stained glass background visible through a bullet hole. The skull and crown was actually something that I picked up from my early days on Halo 2. I suppose the icon grew on me and I use it for most forum I use (from investing websites to computer websites to good ole' philforum. The skull and crown is also a nice homage to the "all is vanity" lithograph by Charles Allan Gilbert.
Q3: Explain to us the significance of your user title (if you have one) and/or signature. Where does it come from? What can this small tidbit of info tell us about you?
Quote:behind" by Sir Francis Bacon. Always an amusing critique of human progression.
Q4: What made you join the forum?
Quote: After I graduated (squared), I had an enormous amount of time between that and law school. As far as I am concerned, if I have more than two months of free time doing nothing mentally productive, I end up losing the little edge I tend to think I have. Thus, in order to keep my edge from dulling, I joined philforum! The quality of the members and the moderators were very excellent and, interestingly enough, what tipped the scales for me to choose this forum over the others was the aesthetic appeal. Truth be told, many of the other philosophy forums have about as much order and aesthetic appeal as a flea circus (which many may actually like). LOL! What's the point of doing something if you don't look good doing it! Bella figura! LOL!
Q5: Can you tell us anything more about your stats, like the volume of posts, your thanks/thanked ratio, and your rep power?
Quote: Well, I joined in March of 2008 (wow it seems like such a long time ago). My location is indeed in Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love and the home of the original flash mob. It is an utterly fantastic city, and it is often sunny in Philadelphia LOL! I have made around 1,500 posts. Most of these posts are either hilariously short or exceedingly lengthy. I like to thank as many people as I can, especially when the discussion, argument, etc. is well founded and of good quality and the people are genuine in their response. My thanked to thank/you ratio is 1.3-1, so I am pretty happy with that. I try to be as even as possible. My rep is 17, although I have absolutely no idea what on earth that measures. LOL!
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Tell us a little bit more about you in general.
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Q6: If you could describe yourself in one short sentence, what would it be and why?
Quote: I know a little about a lot without thought for much of little consequence. LOL!
Q7: Do you have any other interests other than philosophy (i.e. hobbies, work, etc.)?
Q8: Do those interests coincide with your affinity for philosophy?
Quote: I would be lying if I said that philosophy did not in some way coincide with my other interests, especially as far as my affinity for law is concerned.
Q9: Can you tell us anything more about yourself?
Quote: honestly I can't think of anything else that would be that interesting to mention. I have been gradually writing a small 5x8 280 page book on fundamental notions in modern philosophy for the past year (which incidentally explains why I spend so much time on those types of posts) and almost have it through the semi-middle stages (without front/back matter, etc). We'll have to see how that all ends up. The way modern publishing has become, it is actually pretty easy to get something published per se. But I think regardless of what happens when I shop the manuscript around, it was something fun to do. BTW, I am totally ok with winning the lottery so that I can just write and write and write. I have a few other topics I wanted to write about after the modern philosophy book, from English constitutional history/early American colonial law to the British military purchase system. Interesting factoids, there was a time when lawyering was prohibited in America and you could purchase a colonelcy in the British army at one time for kids as young as 8 years old. Seriously, there is not enough time in the day.
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Tell us about philosophy forum and you.
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Q10: What are your favorite areas of the forum? If you have more than one, give us your top five.
Quote: I really like the philosophy 101 section. The posts tend to be a little more directed towards academic philosophy than opinion, which is always nice to take part in since it forces you to substantiate your comments most of the time. But other than that, the metaphysics section is always fun, the logic forum, the modern philosophers, ancient philosophy, etc. If it's interesting, I'll say something on it.
Q11: Do you blog? What are some of the topics you discuss?
Quote:I have, but it has been a recent thing. I started a small little blog series on Godel Esher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, which is a fun little book on thought experiments and so on.
Q12: If you could describe philosophyforum.com in one word, what would that word be?
Q13: How would you describe your posts and the style/structure you use?
Quote: Extremely long. LOL! I can't bring myself to write posts that lack too much essential detail. Honestly, it does not take that much time to put it all down on paper, so it is not a matter of time. I tend to put down a lot of information (often more than what was asked) and then let the person to whom it was addressed take what they will from it. Better to give a lot of information than give too little. The addition of my version of humor is a whole other story.
Q14: What would you do to make philosophy forum a better/more interesting place?
Quote: I would love to see formal debate forums opening up in the future.
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Tell us a little about your perspective of philosophy in general.
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Q15: What first got you interested in philosophy?
Q16: Explain how philosophy is important to you.
Quote: I really don't have any particularly gleamy-eyed views of how philosophy is important for me. I tend to think of philosophy as a tool (skill) to use in conjunction with other things, like history, art, etc. Of course, I'm not that cold towards philosophy, but that is my general view. But keeping philosophy somewhat objective tends to clarify a lot of issues that arise later and streamlines the whole process.
Q17: What keeps you interested in philosophy?
Quote: Tools (skills) can constantly be improved, changed, etc.
Q18: If you could define you own particular philosophy in one short sentence, what would it be?
Quote: Everything is relative.
Q19: What do you think the benefits of philosophy are?
Q20: What do you think the drawbacks to philosophy are?
Quote: I really don't think there are any particular drawbacks to philosophy. It's always good when philosophy moves forward (based on positive or negative content). I suppose if I could suppose any particular drawbacks, it would be when misconceptions in philosophy (content, conveyance, demeanor, etc.) negatively affect philosophy students. Nothing really wrong with that, only it's sad to see it happen.
Q21: What is your favorite subject in philosophy (i.e. ethics, logic, etc.)?
Quote: Metaphysics, ancient philosophy, logic, bioethics, etc. Actually, it's hard to choose a favorite.
Q22: What is your least favorite subject in philosophy?
Quote: Probably existentialism, but only insofar as I don't really get as much pleasure reading Kierkegaard as I do Aristotle.
Q23: Who is your favorite philosopher and why?
Quote: Honestly, I think it would be the collection of modern philosophers. Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, etc.
Q24: Who is your least favorite philosopher and why?
Quote: Nietzsche. Seriously, nothing against him, but I really just don't get any personal enjoyment out of his work. Which is interesting considering how interesting and provoking his works really are, but I was just never able to get into it. To tell the truth, I'm rather pissed at my overall response to his books.
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Lightning Round!!! Answer either or!
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Q25: Global warming or Global fooling?
Quote: Honestly, who knows. I am actually a follower of the fairly obscure historian Rhys Carpenter and polar alignment shifts and how they affect civilization. So when you rely on historians to tell you about weather patterns, honestly you don't have much of an opinion at all. However, I am still relatively angry about the whole titanic thing, so in order to fight the iceberg menace, I support global warming.
Q26: Conservative or liberal?
Quote: probably a little more conservative but not entirely. Each side has their own pluses and minuses.
Q27: Formal or informal?
Quote: formal (unless I'm in an informal mood)
Q28: Smart or ignorant?
Quote: ignorant, because then and only then are you truly smart (or wise... however you choose to look at it) LOL!
Q29: Mac or PC?
Q30: Awesome or Phenomenal?