Philosophical Ponderings - from the Forest to the World

Dear World,

I would say anyone willing to ask 'how' or 'why' is a philosopher, but I have been deeply entrenched in philosophical thinking for nearly 20 years, and so sometimes get called a 'professional philosopher'.

I do not work as a lecturer or researcher in a university. I skipped out of academic philosophy seven years ago. But I continue to study, research, teach and facilitate disucssions quietly and happily. No longer in the dreamy spires and ivory towers of cities like Oxford, but amongst the roots and streams of forests like the Dean.

However, I often don't feel like I am living up to the title of 'professional philosopher' because I don't tend to write down or share my own philosophical thinking, despite my mind developing little theories in many philosophical domains. Also, I have a deep shift in how I approach philosophy since my move from city to forest, and a deep and nervous part of me is so eager to share it all.

But the problem I keep running into is: where do I start? I think about so much. The nature of consciousness, reality and time, how to conduct deep and meaningful relationships, how to build community, how to best educate children, what is happiness, what is good living, the impact the 'trauma' has on the human population, is there such thing as 'evil'... The list goes on and on and on.

But as a person who is often busy with students and indulging in life, I do not spend enough time behind a desk to write up my 'grand theory of everything'. I do not have a full overview of my own thinking processes, and neither do I have a desire to lock myself away to try and work it out. I had to do that for the PhD, and to do it again sounds like hell.

So I wondered if there was another way. One that is more embracing of the grounded and engaging ways I have been learning to do philosophy within the forest. And then, instead of a thesis, I offer a series of letters, or 'philosophical ponderings', that I can give back to the world.

There are two principles I want to follow:

• Keep it short and sweet! So in the form of blog posts or articles that can be read and understood within a normal working day.

• Motivated by community! To write things that people (mainly the community around me) are actually interested in reading and thinking about.

To help this process along, I can provide a list of topics I am willing to write about and my initial thoughts on them. Then allow my community to pick which ones they would like to read about and perhaps ask more specific questions. This will inform how I plan and curate my blog posts. I would also like people to provide their own thoughts and counter-thoughts so we probe these questions further. I will ask my audience to remember that philosophical questions can never truly be answered, and this will be a journey of discovery guided by my own philosophical inspirations.

So, this is my first list of ponderings I feel I can expand on:

How can I live in this (mad) world in an ethical way?

I've been exploring this through off-grid/'tiny house' living for three years. And I am a strong believer in living with minimal impact, but not in a way that diminishes pleasure and fun or completely excludes me from 'the system'.

How to be a happy human?

To tackle this question, I have always believed we have to understand what 'human' is first. When it comes to happiness, a good starting point is to understand how stress works, and what it takes to diminish that. Then, it's a case of accessing your own 'essence' or 'being' and then letting the world come to you, rather than you looking for it in the world. This way of thinking is very inspired by toasim.

What is the best approach to education?

First, you work out what it is to be a happy human, then you apply the educational method. This changes from person to person, but in general I am an advocate of child-led education (with just the right amount of structure!) and perceive 'flexi-schooling' (so a mixture of school and home education) to be an excellent solution.

Man and Land: how should we approach our relationship with the land

This is a big topic for me at the moment that embraces elements of ethics and metaphysics (panpsychism and animism). It brings up everything from the climate change debate to my current work with the Commoners Association in the Forest of Dean.

The Evolution of Human Language, Communication and Cognition

Am I ready to tread the grounds of my PhD again? Would anyone like to probe into my journey of exploring the origins of human language? Did it arise to make humans smart, or to help humans communicate? Is it learned or innate? What's more important to understanding what someone else means? The words they actually say, or the context in which it is said?

Any other questions or philosophical ponderings?

Try me, I might have a personal insight or be able to share from another philosophical perspective!

So I hope that as I share this post with my community of people who live in and around the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley. If my fellow forest dwellers can share their questions and thoughts with me, I can, in turn, offer a series of ponderings back out into the world.

with much love,

Forest