What is this all about?
I have been musing on and off on concepts around truth and knowledge, sometimes feebly and sometimes with a little more insight, for most of my life. This has ranged from the classically philosophical (e.g. "what is truth?" and "do we know anything at all?") through to applications of the concept to society, personal relationships and decisions. My musings have produced a PhD in Philosophy, many debates and a few small publications or podcasts on related topics but I have had limited professional opportunities to pull my different ideas together into something more coherent.
This Substack will slowly collect my thoughts into some structured writing, all focused on concepts that I’ve found to be the core of much of my work - epistemic confidence and humility. Take a look at the Beginnings post and the Short Reading Guide to Humble Knowledge for an introduction to these concepts and what I have written so far.
What can you expect?
I aim to post a longer article at least once a fortnight, with occasional shorter posts on top of these. The articles are a combination of philosophical analysis and cultural commentary, with a clear focus on knowledge and epistemic attitudes. The Short Reading Guide will introduce the range of articles and topics, so I would recommend you start there.
And me?
I am, among other things, an Australian philosopher and futures analyst called Ryan Young. I work both at the Australian National University and for a small company of consultant philosophers called Queritas. Feel free to reach out to be through either of those avenues, or just enjoy reading my work.
