Fallible Ideas is an online comunity of philosophers in the tradition of Ayn Rand, David Deutch, and others. It is run by Elliot Temple, a philosopher who has mastered the craft in the last 20 years or so. They welcome and even seek out people who wish to learn while having a rational attitude.
Why do I need philosophy for?
I want to be as productive as I can be while I live. I want to invest my time, attention, and energy in trying to solve the best problems. For me, at this point in my life, those problems are philosophical and artistic. I want to devote my life to the mastery of art( film*, music, and aesthetics ). I think that all my interests are connected, they all affect each other. I need philosophy to be a better artist and in order to be a better person. I like understanding the world, I'm fascinated by it. I especially like to understand cultures, art, politics, history, and, more broadly, ideas. This last one is my main intellectual interest.
My interest in art and philosophy go hand in hand. Most of what I learn in philosophy I integrate it with my ideas about art. And certain things about art that are yet not understood require philosophy, like understanding what makes a piece of music good, and why do I like music.
I think I understand the situation of the world in broad terms. I still need refinement because I make a lot of generalizations and assumptions. But what I *know I can defend * rationally. I understand the importance of ideas and what irrationality is doing to the world. I recognize the centrality of ideas in my life.
The goal of my life is to master everything I set out to do. And to keep learning until I die.
If I want to master anything, even if it was not art, first, I would need to master philosophy.
I am most grateful for knowing the ideas I already have, as mistaken and incomplete as they are. They are the best ideas the world has. I am very lucky that I had the parents I had, and having found David Deutch, Ayn Rand, and Elliot Temple. I am probably in the 0.0001% of people in the world that have found the best at what they want to do with their lives. And the group narrows down even further when you take into account that one of those masters not only is encouraging you to get better but actually tells you how to improve to be like them and even encourage communication with you. It is as if a musician not only found good advice from Beethoven, but as if Beethoven were offering him lessons for free. This is how I see it but with philosophy.
Just having found FI's ideas makes me one of the most fortunate and people in the world. I think that the FI community is the most serious philosophy comunity and also has the best ideas. As far as I know, I would be joining a community made up of the best philosophers in the world. The comunity has the highest standards for what is expected of me. Living up to these standards will make me grow tremendously more than I could have had I never found or joined them. For all these reasons I will join and participate in the FI comunity. I also have encouraged my brother Fer and friend Jorge to join.
It would be very irresponsible for me not to participate in the FI community. The cost of not doing even on the short term is huge, not just in money, but in time and energy. I am very unskilled not only for my long term goals but for the most basic ones as well. For this reason, the biggest most important investment I could do is to participate in FI. If it cost the amount that college does I would still happily pay. So at the current “price" of admission, it would be very stupid of me not to take this opportunity.
What do I expect to get from joining FI?
What I expect to gain from it is a more structured learning plan, criticism of my ideas by masters of the craft, and the ideas I will learn from them. Eventually, I would like to share with them some of my own ideas in the fields I will like to become skillful at. I would like to pay for tutoring on some of the most advanced ideas like AI and the mind. I also expect a long-term association with the people of FI on which we could build a very strong and productive professional relationship.
I expect that the standards placed on me will serve as a measure of my progress.
I want to become an apprentice of philosophy and I expect this apprenticeship to last for some years.
How do I intend to join?
I need to be able to communicate with them better first. So before I start doing some of the more advanced things, I need to improve my communication skills, which are reading and writing. Once I pass most of the reading comprehension tests with minimal errors, I can begin to practice my grammar.
This will be the first thing i would need in order to begin my apprenticeship. Before that it would be overreaching.
I intended to pay for some tutoring down the line next year(2021) but I see they will make some changes to the comunity and will include paid subscriptions. At first, I may not be able to aford it by as I make more money I can beguin to move up in the subscription tiers until I reach the highest one which could be $100 up to $200 monthly. By the time I get there, I expect to be much more skilled at writing and reading.
If this get’s me what I want then I will stay for as long as needed. But if I consider that I need more individualized instruction in some subject, then I would offer Elliot, or anyone in the comunity who could help me, an extra amount for tutoring.
In order to become an apprentice, I will need to be of some value to them. Currently, I can't offer anything other than some money* in the next months. So my joining process should be gradual in order to build up worth and learn more efficiently. I need to build up the skills and discipline to keep up with them. This is my first objective before I participate more frequently. Even if I wanted to join sooner, it would not be of much use and they probably would not bother with their time and attention. I should see this as an opportunity to develop self-discipline.
* grammatical edits