You can read philosophy in books, but far better to engage in discussion with people. There are, it would seem, very few good living philosophers. I think David Deutsch is the best - find his website here. He is receptive to discussion via email and you just might be able to get his attention on Twitter.
I do like Sam Harris. His website is here and he is also on Twitter. But you have very little hope of engaging him. That's a bad thing. It's largely a function of his celebrity now. Popularity can come with real liabilities - like not knowing where to get quality criticism.
I've recently discovered for example, just how bad some academic philosophers are. I knew that many many philosophers were moral relativists, or ignorant of science or otherwise just disqualified from being good thinkers by their obvious lack of rationality - but I was mistaken to think that even where a philosopher writes about science, seems tech savvy and is otherwise young and seemingly smart - they can still be completely wrong about fundamental philosophy. I know of no better case of this than Nick Bostrom. See my "Superintelligence" essay for that.
Alan Forrester maintains an excellent blog on physics, philosophy and other things. He is also on Twitter @alan_forrester
Rafe Champion maintains one of the more comprehensive sites dedicated to Karl Popper on the web (follow the links - he even has nice bite-sized summaries of Popper's important works for "Very Busy People". He comes recommended by David Deutsch (and myself!) and, for what it's worth, happens to be a fellow Sydneysider (Aussie local to Sydney).
I do like Sam Harris. His website is here and he is also on Twitter. But you have very little hope of engaging him. That's a bad thing. It's largely a function of his celebrity now. Popularity can come with real liabilities - like not knowing where to get quality criticism.
I've recently discovered for example, just how bad some academic philosophers are. I knew that many many philosophers were moral relativists, or ignorant of science or otherwise just disqualified from being good thinkers by their obvious lack of rationality - but I was mistaken to think that even where a philosopher writes about science, seems tech savvy and is otherwise young and seemingly smart - they can still be completely wrong about fundamental philosophy. I know of no better case of this than Nick Bostrom. See my "Superintelligence" essay for that.
Alan Forrester maintains an excellent blog on physics, philosophy and other things. He is also on Twitter @alan_forrester
Rafe Champion maintains one of the more comprehensive sites dedicated to Karl Popper on the web (follow the links - he even has nice bite-sized summaries of Popper's important works for "Very Busy People". He comes recommended by David Deutsch (and myself!) and, for what it's worth, happens to be a fellow Sydneysider (Aussie local to Sydney).