Paperless Philosophy as a Philosophical Method

I discuss the prospects for new forms of professional communication in philosophy. I argue that online discussions and online surveys ought to play a more important role in communications between philosophers than they play today. However, there are major obstacles to the widespread adoption of these media as channels of communication between academics. I offer an overview of these obstacles and sketch a strategy for surmounting them. The strategy I propose involves the development of a new kind of service which could expand the reach of the analytic method in philosophy. A philosopher’s work centers on the production, delivery, and consumption of books and articles. New communication technologies have enabled faster, more convenient means of contributing to and drawing from the philosophical corpus, but there has been no major shift in the format of research communications since the foundation of the Royal Society in the 17th Century. Philosophers still communicate their research mostly through books and articles, whether in print or delivered verbally through talks and lectures. In this paper, I discuss the prospects for new forms of professional communication in philosophy. I am particularly interested in the future of online discussion spaces and online surveys; I believe that these types of service ought to play a more important role in communications between philosophers than they play today. I will explain what potential I see in these services and offer a tentative diagnosis of why their potential remains largely unrealized. Having identified some problems with current discussion spaces and survey services, I will sketch a new kind of online service which integrates discussion spaces and surveys in a way which could help overcome their individual shortcomings. The service I propose could expand the reach of the analytic method in philosophy. 1 Online discussion spaces: potential and reality By “online discussion spaces”, I mean all online spaces which enable participants to pursue public (or semi-public) conversations with groups of individuals asynchronously. This definition encompasses many different kinds of online service, including discussion forums, weblogs, and the kinds of messaging spaces found on social networking services.