Journal takes philosophy into cyberspace By DON MUNSCH "The life which is unexamined is not worth living." Plato, Greek philosopher. Paul Rezendes said if he were given the choice between talking to three Greek philosophers, he'd rather talk to Socrates than Aristotle or Plato. "(Socrates) was doing some hard thinking about the core issues before they received the gloss of thousands of commentators following one school or the other, before the ossification of philosophy into 'schools of thought,' " Rezendes said. "I do not believe that the post-modernist attitude is correct: progress in philosophy does not and will not consist in the fading away of old concerns." Socrates might agree. But seeing as how Socrates is not available for comment, Rezendes can chat with other contemporary philosophers in "The Examined Life On-Line Philosophy Journal," aimed at giving academic philosophy a wider audience. There is no fee to read the journal, and there is no fee paid to the contributors or editors. "It's a journal that myself and two of my colleagues (Rezendes and Chris Altieri) started in January of this past year," said Mitch Hodge, executive editor, of Amarillo. "What we were hoping to do was bring philosophy to a wider public. So we started this journal. We actually conceived the idea in 1998. We talked about it, we tossed it back and forth, and one of the reasons why we had decided to start this was because there seemed to be a great deal of confusion about what philosophy actually was." Hodge said he met the associate editors and co-founders on a philosophy message board, where he said he found many people who didn't know what philosophy was. "They confused the New Age culture with academic philosophy," Hodge said. "We would post our messages, and invariably, sooner or later, we'd be attacked by somebody who really didn't understand what philosophy was. We were told that all we did was quote dead white guys. We got a lot of feedback like that. And then we got a lot of people that thought philosophy was something that could be quoted on a bumper sticker. So we wanted to kind of educate the public and give philosophers a forum to bring philosophy to a wider public." The quarterly journal is supported by the will of the contributors and editors. Three editions have been produced, and the most recent edition, released in August, focuses on the theme of "Does God Exist?" Since the journal went on-line with its first edition, the site has received nearly 12,000 unique hits (including the discussion boards), and has had more than 50 submissions for publication. Starting with the second edition, the journal began to center around themes of discussion, with the second edition asking, "What is Philosophy?" The site features a chat room, discussion forum and free e-mail. Contributors are from all over the world. The journal has published papers from philosophers in Moscow, Australia and the United Kingdom, as well as many from the States. Writers range in age from 16 to 75. The journal hosts special events on the Web, such as real-time lectures, real-time moderated discussions on a variety of topics and real-time debates. All events are posted in the upcoming events section at the journal. "We try to make it accessible to the amateur, student and professional philosopher," Hodge said. Hodge received his bachelor of arts in philosophy and classical studies from the University of Texas at Arlington. He is events coordinator for "The Philosopher's Magazine," an international publication based in London. Altieri is a graduate student focusing on Augustinian philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. He received his bachelor of philosophy degree in 1998 and expects to earn his licentiate of philosophy degree soon. His Ph.D. candidacy was requested in January. Rezendes lives in Boston and is a lawyer and amateur philosopher who received his bachelor of arts in philosophy in 1978. His interests in law and philosophy came together in his article "Professionals As Attorneys: Are Lawyers Ethically Unique?" which was published in the "The Journal Professional." Rezendes said he has gained a great deal through debating issues on the Internet, explaining that he has "made more progress in my own understanding of a number of issues than I would have made by studying on my own. That experience is probably typical for anyone who is sincere. Many people go to philosophy sites just to engage in verbal guerrilla warfare. That just misses the point." Rezendes said philosophy "teaches critical thinking and introduces people to the issues informing some of the bigger debates today. The best citizens in a democratic society are the critical thinkers, whose votes actually represent reasoned choice." So what would Socrates have thought about philosophical discussions on the Internet? Rezendes said he thinks Socrates would have insisted on face-to-face discussion. "Virtual communication does threaten to depersonalize issues, make them removed from everyday life," he said. Altieri said Plato distrusted the written word. "He believed that the written word created an artificial dialectic, or rather, made impossible the development of a real dialectic between interlocutors because, in short, one cannot have a 'real' conversation with a book," he said. Altieri said he thinks emerging technology such as the Internet forces people to evaluate what a dialectic is and how it develops. Altieri said the site has received "extraordinarily positive" feedback, and he and Rezendes said they think the site can help people have an outlet for discussing views they couldn't elsewhere. "As site moderator, I have exercised my prerogative of deleting a post on the grounds of impropriety only three times in seven months," Altieri said. "It is this, the severity with which people approach our site, that separates it from the other media of discourse." The next journal comes out in November, with deadline for submissions on Oct. 20. For more information visit the site at http://committed.to/theexaminedlife, or e-mail editor@theexaminedlife.every1.net. **Photo Credit - Don Munsch / Globe-News Mitch Hodge of Amarillo sits in front of his computer showing the Web site of the philosophy journal he founded with two other people. The site attempts to give academic philosophy a wider audience. Don Munsch is the Beliefs and Ethics Editor of the Amarillo Globe-News. |
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