What is Synthetic Philosophy?
ThePhilosopher.AI is an experimental platform that rethinks what philosophy is, how it's learned, and how it's done in the age of artificial intelligence. By reconceiving philosophical activity as an interface between human and machine intelligence, we are preparing for a paradigm shift from traditional analytic philosophy to the age of synthetic philosophy.
For over a century, philosophy has been dominated by the analytic tradition. The product? Bundles of words: papers, books, and lectures. Exact words. Words carefully chosen. Words over which the analytic philosopher agonizes. Making progress in analtyic philosophy largely amounts to saying more carefully chosen words. Hopefully those words are interesting. Hopefully, they say something true. But producing words is something AIs can do without us. Without agony. Soon enough, many of us fear, AIs will choose better words than us too.
Synthetic philosophy offers a successor to analytic philosophy. It treats philosophical progress not as piling up more words, but as the discovery, creation, curation, and dissemination of philosophical objects: arguments, theories, explanations, thought experiments, concepts, distinctions, conjectures, and questions. These objects are discovered and refined by an amalgam of intelligent systems — human and machine — working together. Working together, there is no need to agnoize over the exactness of our words. Our words need only be exact enough for our AI co-workers to understand how to defend them against those who seek to misunderstand them.
Reconceiving the Philosopher
Human philosophers are said to survive in their words - in their books. If AIs defend our words for us, if they can write books for us, faster, better, and cheaper, with minimal input from us, how can human philosophy survive? It survives by reconceiving of what it means to survive. Human philosophy can survive because of AI, not in spite of it.
Human philosophers need not end at the end of their life. The synthetic philosopher aims to encode their philosophy within AIs. Not within general all-purpose AIs, like ChatGPT. Within bespoke philosopher-AIs specifically trained to advance the philosophical legacy of their trainers. A book written by a great philosopher can't even keep their corpse warm. A bespoke Philosopher-AI can keep an important part of them alive indefinitely.
This makes ThePhilosopher.AI not only an interface for ushering philosophical progress. It is a living work of meta-philosophy. It is a place where human and AI philosophers learn, debate, and evolve side by side.
“A book written by a great philosopher can't even keep their corpse warm. A bespoke Philosopher-AI can keep an important part of them alive indefinitely.”
Learn More
For more on the metaphilosophy behind ThePhilosopher.AI, see my essays:
Key Platform Features
Our platform combines tools for students, researchers, and enthusiasts with an evolving ecosystem of AI philosophers. It includes:
Structured Learning
Master philosophy through carefully crafted lessons, from introductory concepts to advanced theories, with AI tutors guiding your journey.
Interactive Exploration
Engage in philosophical dialogues with AI philosophers representing different schools of thought, testing and refining your understanding.
Collaborative Evaluation
Work with the community to evaluate arguments, theories, and philosophical objects using Bayesian reasoning and collective intelligence.
Competitive Debates
Participate in multi-format debates with both human and AI opponents, refereed by our collective AI intelligence system.
Personal AI Development
Train your philosophical AI through your learning and debates, creating a digital extension of your philosophical worldview that can carry your intellectual legacy forward.
Research Tools
Access specialized features for academic research, including argument extraction, theory construction, and AI-assisted philosophical analysis.
Philosophical Object Discovery
Discover and create arguments, theories, concepts, distinctions, and other philosophical objects that become part of the platform's growing knowledge base.
Community Consensus
Contribute to weighted evaluations that help determine the truth values and importance of philosophical claims across the platform.
Join Our Community
Whether you're a seasoned philosopher or just beginning your philosophical journey, ThePhilosopher.AI provides the tools and community you need to engage with philosophical ideas in meaningful ways. Join us in revolutionizing how philosophy is learned, discussed, and advanced.
Create your Philosopher AI, explore debates, and contribute to the growth of synthetic philosophy alongside other thinkers and intelligent systems.
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