“Confession is the next thing to innocency.” – Publilius Syrus.
Now the disclaimers: first it is worth stating that in deciding to construct this site, I had to choose the assumed level of knowledge of the reader. In order to facilitate anyone who chances on to the site, I decided to write at the level of a high school graduate not yet exposed to a formal philosophy class. To more sophisticated readers; I can only hope you see the logic of this as someone without formal training may be most in need of philosophical guidance and help becoming familiar with philosophers and their principles. Nonetheless I feel sure there is much here for the more informed reader.
If you are a trained philosopher who stumbled into this site, I appreciate your forbearance regarding the lack of rigor and formal logic you will find here. I have great respect for professional philosophers, but think an informal process works best for my purposes. I will gladly read your comments, arguments and criticisms, and respond as best as I am able. Our readers will also benefit from any dialogue you initiate.
Second disclaimer: in general I will cite the source of direct quotes and those developed concepts that I take from a specific text. However when I began my investigations I did not intend to write for the public, so my many notes were recorded less meticulously than in retrospect would have been best. As a result some thoughts I present as my own may have come from one or more of the sources listed in the bibliography. I assure you any lack of attribution of ideas or phrases is unintentional and I am happy for readers to point these out to me so I can make appropriate acknowledgements. In a larger sense, I believe all of the material here is derived from the many great thinkers in the bibliography and I happily offer any accolades this site may generate to all of them.
Last disclaimer: in writing of this type an author must decide on pronouns and articles. It seems to me that the masculine form of these is most usual and reads better than naming both genders repetitively, switching between them, or limiting pronouns to ‘one’ or ‘they.’ So let me state for the record, while I will most often use the male gender, everything applies to both genders and the word ‘man’ can be universally substituted as ‘woman’ or even ‘human’, though I find this less fluid to the reader. I certainly hope no one will take offense, and as in all things, I am open to suggestions and comments on a preferred alternative.
