NIJamesHughes Posted November 30, 2003 Report Share Posted November 30, 2003 I hope that noone takes offense to this( particulartly the owner of the forum), but I have a few suggestions to offer up for consideration. You might break the "philosophy" section up into seperate sections for Metaphysics, Epistemology, Ethics, Politics, and Art. A section for Scientific discussion would, I think, be useful. It might be useful to add a section for Questions about Objectivism and Ayn Rand in a seperate section to keep that type of material away from the philosophic discussions. Then add a general section, and I think that there would be a complete catagorical system for the placement of all the posts It might look something like this: General Metaphysics Epistemology Ethics Politics Art Science Questions I hope this is helpful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted November 30, 2003 Report Share Posted November 30, 2003 This basic idea has already been discussed here. Moving this topic into the "About the website" forum ("Direct your website related questions, suggestions, and criticism here"). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NIJamesHughes Posted December 2, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 Sorry about that.. I'll try to be more judicious with my searches from now on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RationalEgoistSG Posted December 2, 2003 Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 I think that NIJamesHughes has a point here. When the suggestion to break up the forums into separate branches of philosophy was first made, it did not seem justified to do so on the grounds that posts and new threads were low. Since then however, this forum has seen a lot more posts and a lot more threads. I think it would be beneficial to split up the philosophy section into different categories. However, I think we should keep the distinct categories a bit more simple than NIJamesHughes suggested, in order to avoid confusion and to keep things more simple and organized. I suggest that the philosophy section be split up in three: Metaphysics and Epistemology Ethics and Aesthetics Politics (and perhaps a section for the philosophy of science) (and I suppose a "General" or "Miscellaneous" section as well) As to the suggestion that there be a separate forum for questions about Objectivism, I think that just about every post discussed in the philosophy section deals with questions about Objectivism. Therefore, it is not necessary to create a separate forum for that in my opinion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted December 2, 2003 Report Share Posted December 2, 2003 I think RationalEgoist makes a good case. I'm going to create the new forums and move all the philosophy threads to the "Metaphysics and Epistemology" sections. Moderators, feel free to move old and new threads to the proper forum. Also, can I get some suggestions for the new forum descriptions? I suspect than a number of casual visitors don't know what "metaphysics" and "epistemology" mean, so I'd like to provide some indication of the content of each forum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted December 18, 2003 Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 Moderators, feel free to move old and new threads to the proper forum. I've been moving topics around today, trying to get them all into the appropriate new forum, and I've run into a few things that I'd like to get your opinions on. 1 - Should topics about particular films, music, etc. (of which there have been a several now) be left in the "Miscellaneous" forum, or be moved to the "Ethics and Aesthetics" forum? Should discussions of aesthetics in the latter forum be limited to theory, or should narrower applications of it be included in that forum as well? 2 - In a few instances, people have started a topic with more than one question, pertaining to more than one of the branches of philosophy. For now, I have put all such threads in the "Miscellaneous" forum, but I'm wondering if a case could be made for placing them within the forum for the branch that the thread most relates to. What do you think? 3 - There were a few threads in the "Speakers and Events" forum that were basically just linking to another Objectivist website/blog. Since those aren't technically speakers or events, I moved them to the more general Activism forum. Does that seem like the best place for them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted December 18, 2003 Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 Also, can I get some suggestions for the new forum descriptions? I suspect than a number of casual visitors don't know what "metaphysics" and "epistemology" mean, so I'd like to provide some indication of the content of each forum. I think that the description for the "Metaphysics and Epistemology" forum should be changed. Saying only that they are "the foundational branches of philosophy," as it does now, does not really explain what kind of content should go into that forum for people who aren't already familiar with that terminology. I suggest something along the lines of, "Discuss being qua being, the metaphysical nature of man (e.g., free will), and the nature of and means to knowledge." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted December 18, 2003 Report Share Posted December 18, 2003 "Discuss being qua being, the metaphysical nature of man (e.g., free will), and the nature of and means to knowledge." OK, edited. Feel free to change any of the descriptions if you have other ideas. I'm going to get back to you on the rest after I take OAC test.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Capitalism Forever Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 1 - Should topics about particular films, music, etc. (of which there have been a several now) be left in the "Miscellaneous" forum, or be moved to the "Ethics and Aesthetics" forum? Should discussions of aesthetics in the latter forum be limited to theory, or should narrower applications of it be included in that forum as well? I think it's always a good idea to keep your theory closely tied to your practice, so I would have them in Ethics and Aesthetics. When we discuss films etc., we judge them by the standard of the moral perspective they present (as did Ayn Rand)--so these threads have both an ethical and an aesthetic element in them. Besides, when people look for discussion of artistic works, I suppose they will look under "Aesthetics," won't they! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted December 19, 2003 Report Share Posted December 19, 2003 1 - Should topics about particular films, music, etc. (of which there have been a several now) be left in the "Miscellaneous" forum, or be moved to the "Ethics and Aesthetics" forum? Should discussions of aesthetics in the latter forum be limited to theory, or should narrower applications of it be included in that forum as well?Yes, and no. 2 - In a few instances, people have started a topic with more than one question, pertaining to more than one of the branches of philosophy. For now, I have put all such threads in the "Miscellaneous" forum, but I'm wondering if a case could be made for placing them within the forum for the branch that the thread most relates to. What do you think? "Miscellaneous" in most cases. In some cases, it would be a good idea to split a thread into two and place them in the releveant categories. 3 - There were a few threads in the "Speakers and Events" forum that were basically just linking to another Objectivist website/blog. Since those aren't technically speakers or events, I moved them to the more general Activism forum. Does that seem like the best place for them? Yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 Yes, and no. Because my first question here was confusingly written, it's not entirely clear what your response here means. Are you saying that you think topics about particular films, etc., should be left in "Miscellaneous," and discussions of aesthetics in "Ethics and Aesthetics" should be limited to theory? If so, why? As of now, I'm more inclined to agree with Capitalism Forever on this issue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted December 20, 2003 Report Share Posted December 20, 2003 OK, edited. Feel free to change any of the descriptions if you have other ideas... Thanks. I think that the descriptions for the "Ethics and Aesthetics" and "Politics and Political Philosophy" forums need to be changed as well, because right now the descriptions are basically just slight variations on the forum titles. I haven't thought of good, brief descriptions for them yet, though. Anyone else have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidV Posted December 21, 2003 Report Share Posted December 21, 2003 As of now, I'm more inclined to agree with Capitalism Forever on this issue. Me too. That's what I meant in my response. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AshRyan Posted December 22, 2003 Report Share Posted December 22, 2003 Me too. That's what I meant in my response. Oh, all right. I've gone ahead and moved the topics in question from "Miscellaneous" to "Ethics and Aesthetics." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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