The Aim of this Blog

Perhaps one of the harder things surrounding philosophy is not the philosophical teachings themselves, but rather the interpretations of them. One of the things I will be attempting to do through the medium of this blog will be to aid your understanding (as well as my own!) of the various philosophical outlooks and ideals presented to us by some of the great philosophers. From Nietzsche to Derrida, I will be trying to explore some of the better known and lesser known theories these philosophers have put forward, as well as trying to add my own thoughts into the mix. It won't be easy and I'm sure this journey will be as enlightening for me as it is for my prospective readers - if you're reading this then that's you! - but I ask for your patience and understanding as I seek out dusty books from the equally dusty library at my disposal, while I try to gather enough material for each post.

'So,' you're asking, 'what entitles you to take on the philosophical musings of Nietzsche, while giving an adept assessment of Foucault's theories on social control?' The answer to this pretentious-sounding question isn't an answer at all, the fact is I don't know why I want to do this and I'm probably not qualified to do so, but I've always sought an understanding of the world as it appears and how it doesn't appear, like most people, and hopefully I'll be able to learn something from doing this. However, the blog will be done in segments on different days, this is because philosophy is heavy stuff, most of it anyway, so I will also be adding some of my own theories on occasion to lighten the mood, as well as other more topical insights into current affairs.

A bit about me then (perhaps this will shed some light on why I'm approaching the big bad world of philosophy!) - I'm an English & Creative Writing graduate, I've had glimpses into a number of theories and written on a few, as well as including snippets in essays I've previously done. Philosophy truly fascinates me and I like to think of myself as a deep thinker. I plan on writing a novel one day, whether or not it will be successful is another matter but hey-ho! The novel won't be linked to philosophy directly and will be a work of fiction as opposed to a collection of my own thoughts, but, like anything written, it will contain ideas and motifs which you may find familiar after reading some of the future posts on this blog!

I will try to post as often as I can, I really want to get the ball rolling but, like an unbreakable boulder in my way, I work full time, so bear with me on this. I have to brush up on my philosophical readings and this may also take time as I'm reading a great book at the moment by Martin Amis - Money, and as a result some of the first posts may be literary-themed or more of my own musings as opposed to some of the better thinkers (putting it mildly). I would also like to take this opportunity to say two things; one, if you would like me to write about anything in particular put a comment below or on any other future posts I might write, and two, if you have a blog of your own and would like to contribute to mine, then send me a message and we might be able to come to some sort of arrangement...that's not meant to sound sexual but I'm sure there's some sort of  Freudian theory that says everything is about sex anyway! Thank you for reading, I hope you will come back soon.