Australian Philosopher new to Steemit - Hey Everyone!

Hey Steemians! My name is Dr Samuel Douglas, and I’m a philosopher. Being new to the community, I figure I should do my #introduceyourself post. I’ve been interested in cryptocurrency for a while, and I’m constantly thinking & writing, so when @khufu introduced me to steemit, I could instantly see potential for something exciting.  

Quick facts: 

• Nearly 40 
• Married
•  Cat owner 
• Living in Melbourne 
• BA (Hons) & PhD in philosophy from University of Newcastle, Australia 
• Interested in lots of different things 
• Gets kind of scruffy between semesters 
• Rarely as funny as I think I am

Philosophy & work

I teach and undertake research in philosophy. I’ve worked for the University of Newcastle for over 10 years tutoring in mainly ethics & professional ethics (communications, business, psychology, social science, engineering), as well as occasionally lecturing on 20th century analytic philosophers. Even though I’m no physically longer in Newcastle, I’m still associated with them through research projects and online courses that I contribute to. (All that said, I’m hoping to score some work here in Melbourne, home of some of the best philosophy departments in Australia.) Note:  unless otherwise stated, my opinions do not reflect those of any employer I might have.

For any serious philosophy of language nerds out there, my PhD thesis can be downloaded from here, and my last peer-reviewed article from here - both on scepticism about linguistic meaning. I’m still interested in questions about what’s going on with language, but would like to apply the theories more than just argue over the technicalities that only 5 people in the world (including me) care about. I’m sure there’s a paper in how Wittgenstein’s theories apply to bitcoin! Seriously though, I don’t think academic philosophers have really considered the implications of blockchain and cryptocurrency technologies as much as they should – these are world-changing technologies. 

More recently, I’ve been working with a team of academics, mostly from Newcastle’s School of Education, on a project where we explore the ethical dilemmas that school-teachers experience, with the aim of developing better training materials to help them navigate these difficult decisions. Expect to hear more about this in 2018! 

Other writing

Outside of, or kind of overlapping with my academic stuff, I’ve blogged a bit, and written for an independent news site called Independent Australia – all my articles for them can be found via my author profile there.

Overlapping with my writing, which can get a tiny bit political, I try to do my bit to lobby our government on a number of fronts. Mainly this has been to fight for the pay and working conditions of my fellow higher-education workers, but I’ve also been involved in pushing for drug-law reform. I’ve even appeared before an Australian Senate inquiry to talk about the possibility of a better approach to the sale & use of cannabis. I’m hoping spend some time this year advocating for more rational and fair laws surrounding the use of psychedelics. Going to throw it out there: Prohibition doesn’t protect our freedom, and it doesn’t actually protect us from harm. I know it’s a risk committing this opinion to eternity in the blockchain, but I’ve thought about it a lot.

Fun

When I’m not writing or bothering politicians, I like reading science-fiction, talking about ethnobotany, gardening (sometimes successfully), photography (sometimes OK), gaming on PC (mostly Fallout 4 and Path of Exile, and not with any great skill), and generally hanging out with my better half and our cat. 

That's about all I can think of for now - this is a good thing as sometimes I can go on a bit. I’m really looking forward to having conversations with this community (not least #teamaustralia) – I really think the best ideas develop when people with diverse experience & backgrounds collaborate and talk things out. Thanks for reading - feel free to comment & ask questions any time.