Hello Steemians! Before I properly introduce myself, let me confront you with the following quote:

The unexamined life is not worth living.

With these famous words Socrates chose death rather than exile from his beloved city of ancient Athens. His exile would mean the end of his Socratic method, the end of what he considered the most virtuous of all human endeavours: the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom through questioning, logical argument and above all else open debate.

If Socrates was alive today, he undoubtedly would have been a Steemian. This platform has an incredible potential to nurture meaningful and respectful debate between people of all walks of life. And that’s why, today, I’ve decided to become a Steemian myself.

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Hi! Im Bruce, a 30 year old male from Belgium. I make a living as a freelance copywriter and game journalist. Hence the nickname ‘Games Joyce’. Get it? Clever, right? Right…

I feel very fortunate to be able to combine my love for language and video games in my professional life. Yet, there’s a third passion I’ve been neglecting for too long. Philosophy - who would’ve guessed after that intro huh? And, I’m sorry fellow Steemians, but you’re about to bear the burden of this neglect.

Fret not however, because my silly obsession with understanding ideas might actually be beneficial to this whole community.

Debate can be an unbelievably powerful tool, not only as a way to distinguish a good from a bad idea, but more importantly as a collective search for truth. When two open minded people engage in honest discussion something magical happens: both minds strengthen each other with the unrelenting force of well thought out and reasonable arguments. A good debate can absolutely embolden and strengthen the individual.

And that’s why I plan on instigating as many meaningful debates on Steemit as I can. How I’m going to handle this most noblest of missions is still a bit unclear to me though. On one occasion I might pit two interesting ideas against each other, at other times I might challenge commonly held beliefs by the community with counter-arguments (I’m looking at you anarchism, just-kidding-not-kidding). Think of me as the midwife of your own ideas, if that makes any sense.

I’ll call this series of debates ‘Debate This!’ (as a tribute to the wonderful Philosophize This! podcast by Stephen West).

So if all this philosophical mumbo-jumbo strikes any chord with you, look out for that highly original prefix ‘Debate This!’ and get your arguments ready. Or, you could just follow me ofcourse. :-)

Here’s to a successful, open and good spirited Steemit community! Cheers!

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PS: Feel free to ask me a question about anything. And yes, this includes Gamergate and ethics in game journalism. I might just give you some industry insider filth. (Idea: should do a post about that in the future.) 

PSS: I’m not a native English speaker, so linguistic suggestions and corrections are greatly appreciated!

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