I've noticed an odd current running through the veins of Everything2. It is a trend of philosophical writing without any understanding of philosophy. Here are a few hints:
Don't reinvent the wheel.
While the fact that your radical ideas were thought of 2500 years ago by Plato may not matter to you or your friends in a coffee-house debate, it does matter here. In order to "Node for the Ages", it would help if you didn't duplicate the effort of those who came before you.
Don't make things up.
Don't make leaps of faith if you wish to make a cogent writeup on philosophy. Do explain any inferences or extrapolations you use. Don't hop around avoiding elaboration. Just don't! If your arguments don't come together, you can't just say "Oh, and through a series of elaborations A is B." Tell us why.
Read up!
You want to write a philosophical node, eh? This generally means you are interested in some of the questions that philosophy raises. Take a little time to read on the topics that interest you before you node about them. This will avoid the above problems, as well as mowing down other issues before they start. Here are a few authors you should probably read to start: Plato, Immanuel Kant, David Hume, John Locke, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Friedrich Nietzsche, Bertrand Russell, and so forth.
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