Good places to discuss philosophical ideas?

[SirKazum]

Lately I've been working out some ideas on the underpinnings of human society, politics and ideology (more to the point, on how the competing evolutionary strategies of selfishness vs. cooperation, as well as their permutations, inform and underlie not only human behavior but the different philosophies/ideologies for structuring society), and I'd like to run them by other people. You know, see if I'm making sense, put 'em through some stress testing, see if there's anything I'm missing / should have read first, and so on. For obvious reasons (it would inevitably veer into politics), I don't think this here place would be appropriate for actually discussing my ideas... so do you have any other suggestions? I've tried looking for a suitable place on Reddit, but r/philosophy and r/askphilosophy don't seem friendly to this sort of original-content discussion, and I don't know where else to look.

[Tyndmyr]

Lately I've been working out some ideas on the underpinnings of human society, politics and ideology (more to the point, on how the competing evolutionary strategies of selfishness vs. cooperation, as well as their permutations, inform and underlie not only human behavior but the different philosophies/ideologies for structuring society), and I'd like to run them by other people. You know, see if I'm making sense, put 'em through some stress testing, see if there's anything I'm missing / should have read first, and so on. For obvious reasons (it would inevitably veer into politics), I don't think this here place would be appropriate for actually discussing my ideas... so do you have any other suggestions? I've tried looking for a suitable place on Reddit, but r/philosophy and r/askphilosophy don't seem friendly to this sort of original-content discussion, and I don't know where else to look.

It seems relatively rare, probably specifically because of the tendency for it to devolve into politics. There are *many* places that talk about politics, usually becoming some kind of echo chamber, but relatively few who manage to talk about politics and other stuff without angry political conversation crowding the rest out.

I think you could certainly talk about at least some of the above here, provided you carefully avoid the political stuff, but I'm not sure there's a place that's perfect for all of what you're curious about. You will get at least some of this discussion in the better philosophy classes, in which you get to discuss the philosophies themselves from a moral, not merely historical perspective.

[Justanotherhero]

This probably is not what you are looking for since it is an offline solution, but at least at my university a few people do drop by as guest students in philosophy lectures and enrich the setting. It costs about 80 Euro per semester I believe.
Also, there are evenings with visiting philosophers that usually include a debate and question session. Philosophy professors do sometimes accept original-content submissions of non philosophers for publishing evaluation. Particularly since Job-Philosophy such as Medical Philosophy, Engineering Ethics and other specialised sub fields require understanding in Philosophy and the field being analysed. Maybe a university nearby does the same where you live?

The internet is a rather judgmental place even compared to other settings. In person ideas can be discussed that might be declared madness on the streets outside.

[JeenLeen]

One of my favorite lines I read in a college class was something like "Tolerance is respecting other people, even when they are wrong." I think the difficulty of combining discussion where you can admit you disagree with each other AND remain respectful is part of the issue.

I second others that it's probably possible here, but I reckon it'd get shut down eventually due to the likelihood of it veering into politics and (as a separate issue) the difficulty of discussing some things while avoiding real life history, politics, and religion.

(more to the point, on how the competing evolutionary strategies of selfishness vs. cooperation, as well as their permutations, inform and underlie not only human behavior but the different philosophies/ideologies for structuring society),

If you do find a good place, note that you seem to already be making some philosophical assumptions about the world (namely that competing evolutionary strategies have shaped these things). Or at least that's how I read that statement.

But I think it works to discuss philosophy, even with folk who don't share your assumptions, as long as the assumptions are admitted and accepted for the sake of argument/discussion. (That is, everyone is okay going into the discussion with a sense of "if this is true, what are the philosophical....")

[truemane]

The only on-line community that I've ever been a part of where this sort of thing worked was the CKA (Canada Kicks Butt) forums. Canadaka.net, I think. There was a subforum called the "League of Extraordinary Debaters" in which threads were tagged and (in theory) only well thought-out, researched, well-written replies were permitted.

I wasn't a perfect system, but if I recall correctly it worked mostly okay most of the time. I can recall several discussions on very hot button topics going for pages and pages of respectful debate.

I haven't been there in over a decade. So maybe it's all just weird maple-syrup fetishists now, I don't know.

[SirKazum]

If you do find a good place, note that you seem to already be making some philosophical assumptions about the world (namely that competing evolutionary strategies have shaped these things). Or at least that's how I read that statement.

See, that's exactly the kind of feedback that I think could lead to interesting places. I was thinking about just writing down what I think about stuff, but I'm aware that we always have our blind spots (or sometimes may just, y'know, be wrong about stuff), which is why I think debate is a vital part of the process of developing a philosophy.

And truemane, I just visited canadaka.net, and the forums there seem more... I dunno, focused on specific stuff. Didn't find exactly the one you mentioned. Well, I'll keep mulling it over a while more. But thanks!