Good to see you here fdrake!

:D

Quite like the idea of Hypatia. Anyone object to using her as our favicon?

I see he's still using the old, better one on this site, so it's not the end of the world quite yet.

The Google bot finally turned up and indexed a few pages on the site. I hope it won't be long before it comes back and crawls through the categories and indexes some of the discussions.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=site%3Athephilosophyforum.com

EDIT: what am I doing wrong with that picture? — Benkei

That URL goes to a web page, not an image. Is the image you want on that page? Which one?



Okay I get it. You have to strip out the query string for those images, i.e., everything after the file extension.

Maybe so according to the notion that more = better, but the most fun times I had at PF were in '02-'05. For me, the discussions were more fun precisely because there were few enough people that I could actually read a whole thread instead of having to skim 10 pages super-quick. Why bother to post if there are going to be too many replies to engage with? — Paul

One possible problem with this new platform as opposed to PF is that all posts work kind of like Facebook comments or even internal replies, in that they're inline, quick and AJAXy. The temptation is to post, post, post.

Great to see you found your way over here!

He was a grumpy old bastard as I recall. Woe betide the person who disagreed with anything he said.

Of all the responses so far yours comes closest to my own feelings about this. Whether this is seen as old-fashioned, grandiose, naive, Eurocentric, Hegelian, utopian, golden age sci-fi, or as a quasi-religious Freudian displacement mechanism, I can't help but think of myself as part of a spectacular project, the project of humanity and its quest for freedom and new horizons. This is what motivates my interest in philosophy and politics. The story of human beings as a whole is for me what lies behind the greatest thought, the greatest art and the greatest strides in improving people's lives. This is why I care, because I feel like I'm part of it.

But like @Sapientia above I wouldn't say it's an empathy for future individual human beings. Maybe I'm a bit like this:

I'd argue that such icons are even more revealing of philosophical prejudices than pictures of Socrates or Kant, because they assume a mental internalism and an excessively Cartesian philosophy of mind. Some of us don't see thinking as just "in the head".

Clearly there will never be agreement here. :D

I do like Rodin's Thinker partly because it shows the whole person, body and all, in a posture of contemplation. But it's become the cliché of clichés.

By the way if you want to do the thing, you have to use the special one next to the eye @Wosret otherwise no link. — Baden

Though of course you don't actually have to use the @ button; you can just type what it ends up entering in the text box, e.g., @ followed immediately by "Baden", with the quotes.

@Baden

It's the number of likes you have received. Yes, I know, it's a bit distasteful, but we may get used to it. It's designed to encourage helpful and respectful posting habits. But I'll ask for the ability to switch it off when I get in touch with the developers again.

By the way, I've been trying to set up a special PayPal account for this so I can avoid using my regular business account, and keep the money separate, but I'm having a lot of trouble. PayPal can be such a pain with stuff like email addresses and phone numbers and addresses.

But maybe you should add a poll to this discussion, with a choice of philosophers or other things to use as the favicon.

[Applause]

Well, as you might suspect, Moliere, I'm one of those old-fashioned colour-blind leftists. I don't really go for affirmative action and have a great antipathy to labelling people primarily as de-individualized representatives of an ethnic community. To the extent that I might favour affirmative action socially it certainly wouldn't be in the context of an independent club of amateur philosophers (amateur = for the love). I think it's patronizing and silly. What's the problem: black people hate Kant?

European philosophy is European only in place of origin, not in who's meant to appreciate it, use it and develop it. Like French cheese.

I respect your position and would like to answer more expansively, but, you know, my poor broken arm.

EDIT: But I do agree more attention needs to be paid to philosophers ignored by the tradition, especially if they have been marginalized merely for their ethnicity. (I'm not contradicting myself here, I don't think)

I'll report it as a bug. You mind describing what happens again exactly?

If Mars Man developed an interest in philosophy and some facility with plain English, then sure, why not?

Thank you outlaw, it's appreciated.

I can't believe nobody's mentioned UtterCunt or Hegel'sBagels.

Good to see you mcD

It's already in Books

will invite Kwalish Kid only if I have permission — Mayor of Simpleton

Sure.

Great to see you here @Thorongil

They're deploying a new release in November. Not sure if they'll squeeze any of our requests in on time. Sounds like they're pretty slow and careful.

Wow that was quick. Welcome aboard!

I've PMd photo and Thorongil

See here: http://thephilosophyforum.com/discussion/32/how-will-this-site-attract-new-members

Dragon_Lance

White guy with a beard? Now that would be a cliché. But you're right, he wouldn't be so controversial. Everyone likes Socrates, despite how annoying he was.

Hover over the discussion title to see the category. But that's not great, I know, so it's already been added to the list of feature requests.

Glorious. Haven't the meanies put a stop to it yet?

I just knew the Kant favicon would be controversial.

I'll add it to the list in Feature requests.

Are you okay?

Has this been happening today as well?

Greg, you're making me dizzy

Nice work Tiff.

Not sure what you mean when you say you can't add a quote when you edit.

ad or mod delete one — Mayor of Simpleton

That's an edit