Plan for a Public Notebook

Some background

My strange career began with academia and a little college teaching, and then a series of knowledge and education startups and consulting stints. I have rarely been short of interesting opportunities, from which I have been able to choose what I think is most worthwhile. The most worthwhile, on my view, were not always the most lucrative—probably because my vocational sensibilities were established at universities, so that I have thought of my career as a series of contributions to the knowledge commons, not as an entrepreneur’s journey.

Now, because I’ve been blogging at larrysanger.org since 2010 (with a few earlier posts grabbed from previous incarnations), my “back catalog” is substantial. This website has gotten enough traffic recently that if I were simply to do a bunch more blogging, I might be able to make a living from it, if I were to run ads and start a subscription feature. So I’m going to try that.

I have, as the man said, “a very particular set of skills”: three degrees in philosophy; experience starting encyclopedia and other information projects; much experience with all aspects of internet startups since the 1990s, including programming experience; ongoing experience as a writer, editor, and interviewee; experience making and editing videos; and, in the last six years, rather intense interest in the Bible, theology, philosophy of religion, apologetics, and related subjects. I’ve collected 90,000 followers on X.com, 15,000 on YouTube, and on this website, traffic at a rate of 75,000+ pageviews per month recently.

Throughout last year, when I had some big posts, I was thinking: If I were simply to do a lot more blogging, I might be able to make a living from it, if I were to run ads and start a subscription feature. Perhaps I could combine that with some videos.

It would be especially nice to give myself time, independent motivation, and, hopefully, some remuneration for theological study. If I can convert myself into a “public theologian,” even as I develop my own positions and theological skills, that would be great; I can see spending the rest of my life doing that. So, I’ll try my hand at it for a few months, anyway.

Are you on board? Want to help? Read on.

Features of a “Public Notebook”

The subscription feature I want to add can be described as a Public Notebook. Some posts would always be available to the public, but most of the material would be available only to subscribers. When we start running ads (which is the plan), subscribers won’t see any.

The Notebook can be divided into a few sections, which reflect my projected activity on this blog: (1) seminar on natural and revealed theology; (2) essays; and (3) miscellaneous. Each taken in turn:

Seminar on natural, biblical, and philosophical theology

I am working on God Exists, which is a philosophical and theological case for the existence of God, currently around 700 pages. While I am working on newer material—slowly—I intend to do, in public, background reading on all the chapters, beginning with Chapter 1. The plan is to be fairly exhaustive in this reading. (Or so goes the current plan.) Chapter 1 concerns the cosmological arguments, divided into an Argument from Contingency and an Argument from Causality. Therefore, the reading list for Chapter 1, which you are invited to follow, will be:

• Plato, Timaeus 17a-41d (a cosmology; buy ($5 Kindle edition is worth it just for the notes); free or also free; read up to the creation of man)
• Plato, Laws X 884a–900b (the original First Mover argument; buy but note, it’s a short selection; free from Bk. X start through to “denied the existence of the Gods.”)
• Aristotle, Physics II (the four causes), VI (Aristotelian foundations), V (not required, but helpful), esp. VII–VIII (in VIII, esp. 1–2, 4–7, and 10–12; the classic Prime Mover argument; buy this or this, or ebook; free vol. 1 vol. 2)
• Aristotle, Metaphysics II (explanation and infinite regress), VI–IX (more Aristotelian foundations), esp. XII (elaborates the Prime Mover argument; buy; free or free pdf)
• Augustine, City of God VIII.1–6 (natural theology), XI.4–6 (eternity and creation; buy vol 1 vol 2, but it’s a short selection; free)
• Avicenna (Ibn Sina), The Metaphysics of the Healing I.5–7 (a version of the contingency argument) and VI.1–3 (on causality; I will make a PDF available)
• Thomas Aquinas, De Ente et Essentia (free); Summa Contra Gentiles I.12-17 (free); Summa Theologiae I.2 (esp. art. 3) and I.9; free) (It’s hard to find all of these in a single to-purchase package.)
• Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy III (two different cosmological arguments)
• Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, “Primary Truths” (PW, PE), “On the Ultimate Origination of Things” (PW, PE, MOPW, PT), “Metaphysical Consequences of the Principle of Reason” (PW), “On Contingency” (PE), “Principles of Nature and of Grace” (PW, PE, MOPW, PT), Leibniz–Clarke Correspondence (PW, PT) (buy PW; buy PE; free MOPW; free PT; I strongly recommend you just get PW, and I’ll give you a PDF with the one essay it doesn’t have)
• David Hume, Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding IV–VII (on causation, read as a criticism of the PSR; buy; free or free)
• David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion IX (brief criticism of the Cosmological Argument)
• Bertrand Russell, “Why I Am Not a Christian” (free); “On the Notion of Cause” (buy; buy ebook; free)
• Brian Davies, An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Chapter 3 (“Cosmological Arguments”; an easy but good general intro to modern versions; buy)
• William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, Chapter 3, “The Existence of God (1)” (on the Kalam Cosmological Argument; buy)
• Other readings I might do with or without public comments, depending on who shows up:
  • Anthony Kenny, The Five Ways (chs. I–IV)
  • William L. Rowe, The Cosmological Argument
  • William L. Craig, The Cosmological Argument from Plato to Leibniz
  • Graham Oppy, Arguing About Gods, Chapter 3, “Cosmological Arguments” (Good overview of the recent debate from a skeptical point of view.)
  • Elly Vintiadis and Constantinos Mekios, eds., Brute Facts, Chs. 1–3 (It’s an intro to the contemporary defenses of “brute facts” in philosophy of science.)
• Larry Sanger, God Exists (draft), Chapter 1, “The Arguments from Contingency and Causality” (PDF will be supplied.)

This is just the first section. If we keep it up, we will cover many more topics in philosophy of religion and theology. Perhaps the above is too ambitious to start, but we’ll see. I don’t plan to go through this according to a schedule, but maybe we’ll add one later. The plan is simply to make steady progress. I can say this: If I get substantial financial support for this project, you can count on a very substantial commitment from me.

I will experiment with two kinds of coverage:

Questions and answers will involve me (or you) asking fine-grained questions about the reading, and then answering them in some detail. The purpose with this is to read carefully and to explain everything that is puzzling, asking “What does this mean?”, “Why does so-and-so say this?”, “Is this argument any good?”, and “What would he say to such-and-such an objection?”

Videos and/or videoconferences would involve me (and/or guest experts) fielding questions, maybe with a short talk introducing the reading.

I will be encouraging you (i.e., participants) to post your own answers and give feedback on mine or on the material itself.

Exclusive essays

I have been posting essays about theological topics on the blog. I will continue to do so. If I am enabled to spend more time on this, some such essays may be only for the Notebook.

Miscellaneous

Prayers: I’ve been playing with the idea of posting occasional prayers in a special new section. Here is an example:

I pray o Lord that I be constantly reminded of the inadequacy of my judgment and the total glorious perfection of yours. Make me humbled and repentant before you. Fill me with your holiness, with the holy resignation I need to replace my will with yours. Help me to see the beauty of your holy and righteous Spirit—that he must be cherished and obeyed. Amen.

More Wikipedia, AI, and internet pieces: My writing about Wikipedia did not end with the Nine Theses; I will continue to push for reforms to Wikipedia. Ongoing support for the Knowledge Standards Foundation has made writing on these topics possible, so this material will probably be posted publicly on the main blog; not sure, though.

Complementary book: PDF and EPUB copies of the Essays on Free Knowledge: The Origins of Wikipedia and the New Politics of Knowledge will be made available to all subscribers.

The layout of the Notebook

My plan is to make a new landing page for the Notebook, divided into logical sections, including:

1. Latest reading assignments; will include links and sometimes PDFs
2. Q&A on readings and links to videos on the reading assignments, with your discussion
3. Exclusive essays (mostly on theological topics)
4. Prayers
5. A pinned post with PDF and EPUB versions of Essays on Free Knowledge

Please be patient while I set up this layout, along with the payment system.