User:Stringman5

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[edit] About me

I'm an honours student in Philosophy at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

[edit] My philosophy

I'm working on it. The fact that it took the ironically named I. Kant about 10 years of work to construct his philosophy makes me feel a whole load better about myself.

Despite my marked lack of knowledge about the vast majority of philosophy, I do have a few opinions about a few things. For instance, I identify myself with:

• Atheism - I believe that there is no God. I do not purport to know this with certainty, but I haven't seen any evidence for His or Her existence (or for the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster either, for that matter).
• Nominalism/Monism - I believe that there are no individual objects or types of things. Everything is just swirls and partterns in an enormous whirling universe (well ok, maybe there is just one thing - the universe/everything. Or perhaps the only universals that exist are atomic particles?). I believe that this can help explain why we have philosophical problems with defining where some things begin and end - for example, death.
• Non-cognitivism/Moral skepticism/Moral nihilism - I don't believe that there is any objective moral truth. However, I do believe that subjective moral truth can be found, and that this doesn't imply relativism... I think.
• Nihilism - I believe that there is no objective meaning to life.
• Utilitarianism - With no objective meaning and no moral truth, we should devote ourselves to maximising utility. (Furthermore, I believe that it is states of affairs that hold moral worth, not actions - i.e. I am a consequentialist).
• Cosmopolitanism/Global egalitarianism - I don't feel that national or state boundaries carry any ethical weight. i.e. we don't have a duty to look after our own countrymen before we look after foreigners.
• Falsificationism - I like many of Karl Popper's ideas about the philosophy of science.
• Strong AI - I think that machines might be able to think and understand, and that consequently they might be persons.
• Vegetarianism - I believe that we should have equal consideration for the interests of all sentient creatures.
• Feminism/Sexual egalitarianism - I am in favour of equity between the sexes (but NOT necessarily equality).
• In terms of Bioethics, I am in favour of the legalisation of abortion, stem-cell research, euthanasia and genetic engineering (although with some practical reservations about G.E.). I am also very much in favour of the legalisation of cannabis for medicinal and recreational use. (In fact, I don't believe that any drugs should be illegal, primarily for liberal reasons, and because prohibition has proved hopeless).

WikiProject Philosophy task list German Idealism and almost all the articles related to it need to be either rewritten or expanded, because a wikipedia user called Lestrade has, among other things, taken it upon himself to imbue each page with bias in favour of Schopenhauer, who he attempts to present as having the last say in everything. This is a terrible thing to do, because German Idealism is such an important period in philosophy, whose influence is still strongly felt today. Protected Values first section confuses right action and values and needs a copy edit, moving and wikifying Ludwig Wittgenstein is having its FA status reviewed due to a couple of concerns. Help save Ludwig! See Wikipedia:Featured article review/Ludwig Wittgenstein for requirements for retaining FA status. Quality (philosophy) needs a more clear explanation. Socratic dialogues could do with some tidying and clarification. See the talk page for one suggested change. Problem of universals: The introductory definition is (perhaps) fixed. But, the article is poor. Check out the German version. Teleology: the article is shallow and inconsistent. Existentialism: the quality of this article varies wildly and is in desperate need of expert attention. Star of Sophia Vote for or nominate someone you think is deserving! Analytic_philosophy This is a very major topic, but still has several sections which are stubs, and several topics which are not covered. Inverse (logic) This article makes me wish that there were a fail grade on the quality scale. Someone should rewrite it. Vote | Larry's Text | stubs | edit this list | discuss these tasks | Category:Philosophy | Portal:Philosophy | RFC | Deletion | Requested articles | Noticeboard | Discussion

[edit] Influences

My ideas have been very much influenced by Peter Singer, Karl Popper, Richard Dawkins, and R.M. Hare.

[edit] Wikipedia Projects

[edit] To Do:

At the moment (07:36, 3 November 2007 (UTC)), I am finishing off my honours year and stressing pretty hard. After that, I wouldn't mind having a crack at some of the following:

• History of Philosophy - needs a serious overhaul and material added to it. It is my belief that much of the history-oriented material needs to be moved from Philosophy to History of Philosophy. History of Western Philosophy also merits a look-over.

• Sorites Paradox - this needs to be reworked. It is in need of an expert on the subject, which I happen to be.

[edit] Things I've done/Works in progress:

• I totally rewrote a section on religious fanaticism and utilitarianism.
• I have now created and written Two-level utilitarianism. 03:57, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Other People

Anarchia is a member of my philosophy department.