The Cave

 So I'm Connor Bevan, a student of Philosophy, Religion & Ethics at the University of Gloucestershire and general philosophy enthusiast. For a while now I've been aspiring to be a journalist and writer, hopefully on the subject I laboriously study. 

 

 I was told by a silly amount of people that writing a blog would be a sensible start and generally useful approach to going into journalism. Apart from this I also thought it might be a good idea to actually write down some of my ideas and opinions and maybe provoke a bit of challenge to them...  In my head everything seems like a good idea, but I often discover that upon writing something down and handing over my mind to someone else I've been called mad on more than one occasion. So, as well as serving a practical purpose I thought this might get me thinking a little more... and hopefully nobody will question my sanity.

 

 Then there was the question of how I was to write this monstrosity; this seemed like a more daunting task than anything else. My problem is that in conversations with some friends philosophy often leaves people shaking their head and pouring even more whiskey. My other friends who attend university find it compellingly intellectual and enjoy talking about it. This might be because at higher levels of study they can see an interdisciplinarity relationship between philosophy and other subjects... Or they're being polite.

 

 Once I finally decided to stop watching DVDs and to go ahead with it and start I found myself asking my friends, bandmates, parents, housemates and my girlfriend as to how they thought I should write it. Obviously an academic tone would be more respectable... but then who would read it? A handful of my university friends and some unwilling members of my family. No. One of my lifelong concerns has always been why people feel alienated or confused by what they think philosophy is. I've always wanted to make philosophy more accessible so why not start now? It was my housemate (who studies finance) and my friend and bandmate Kieran (who reads German and Russian at UCL) arguing from very different points of view who convinced me of this. Of course, my arguments will still be clear and intellectually handled but I'll try my best to be humourous and engaging in appropriate places.

 

 As for my personal philosophy (although largely impossible to summarise for anyone under one label) sits most comfortably as 'athiest' and 'rationalist' and though interesting I find institutionalised religion to be one of the greater threats to an intellectual, free, beautiful, reasonable and moral secular society. I strongly advocate alongside writer Sam Harris that science, logic and rationality can determine objective moral values and have a personal interest (broadly speaking) in social justice, the philosophy of mind, science and religion, atheism, evolution, ethics and epistemology. I believe many people strangely think that science and philosophy work in opposite ways; when in fact they should (as historically they have) operate as partners.

 

 I identify strongly with a number of thinkers and writers including Marx, Plato, Nietzche, Kierkegaard, Dennett, Kant, Wittgenstein, Kuhn, Hegel, Satre and many others. I remember as a sixth former my love for philosophy really began. It was Plato's Allegory of the Cave from The Republic that opened my mind to the world and so began all the discussions and debates between my best friend and I as we attempted to solve all the questions of existence.

 

 So here it is. I'll try and cover a broad range of topics, communicating my own deficient philosophy at times, rant and pull down other arguments on angrier days and otherwise discuss or examine some things I think are overlooked and interesting.

 

 Many of these topics are things I have a personal interest in or derive from a reflection of (often drunken) conversations and debates with my friends, who shall probably be mentioned through these articles.

 

 If you feel strongly enough about it and you want to call me a twat regarding a point I make, I'd love that (spelling mistakes are my favourite) and I'll do my best to respond.