How to Write Philosophy

Free your mind of all conventional restrictions or inhibitions.

In philosophy, you get to express yourself as you are. There are many ways to write, so don't hesitate just because you feel someone won't take your work seriously. Most people who won't take you serious are those that are stuck in a rut, usually with a fear of change, so don't listen to them. If you're having difficulty freeing your mind try meditating, to calm yourself down and clear your mind of unwanted thoughts.

Write letters.

The letter is a brilliant way to deepen your understanding of the world. Whether to yourself or to another, writing a letter is less time consuming and generally a lot easier than other options. Seneca's letters of a stoic are a good place to learn how to write philosophical letters. There are a few ways this can be done, you can write letters to someone, who replies to your letter. You could write letters to yourself, though written in a manner as if to another. Finally you could write a letter to yourself and reply to that letter in your next letter, in a way that shows you have thought X one day and after contemplating think Z.

Keep a diary.

Writing in a diary regularly will help you build your writing skill. You will be able to look back over, seeing how your thought process developed. Like a letter, it only requires small amounts of writing input, however you need to be dedicated enough to write regularly, at least once a week. See how to write a diary.

Keep a notebook

This is similar to a diary, but captures a singular thought and not the development. If you do a notebook, it is best to combine it with another way, as the notebook is more of a preparation for your main work - it requires that you already know what you think. Leonardo Da Vinci kept notebooks which were filled with illustrations of different inventions and sketches of the human body, all of this was annotated. Read them to get a sense of writing notebooks.

Write poetry.

One of the most provocative and exciting styles is philosophy in poetry. Poetry is easy for many to read and will improve your poetry skills too. Goethe's Faust is the best example, although yours doesn't need to be so long. This is good for someone with a fertile imagination, it is also a lot easier for others, who are not as interested in philosophy to read being not so preachy as the other forms.

Use Socratic dialogue.

This is the original way of writing down philosophy, pioneered by Plato. Read his works to get a grounding of how to write this type. For those not familiar with Plato, a Socratic dialogue is like a play in which a group of philosophers discuss philosophical ideas, the writer can then use the people in the dialogue to put across his point of view or rubbish someone else's. However, it's not the same as a play; a play should be a story with a message at the end, a dialogue should be like two old men sat talking to each other.

Use creative writing.

A short story, a play or an opera can also put across philosophical ideas. These are more popular and easier to write if you have an ability for creative writing. However, you must make it clear at the end that there is a moral to the story at the end and it's not just a nice little story. The novel is one of the best ways to put across ideas. However it requires a lot of input and you yourself will have to be pretty good at creative writing if you want to perform this type of writing. One example would be Ayn Rand or Dostoyevsky's 'The brothers Karamazov' or 'Crime and Punishment'.

Write out your beliefs.

Philosophical works also good ways to get your ideas across. It is a basic stating of your philosophical beliefs in a precise and condense format. The best way to start would to be to write down your basic beliefs in a philosophical statement (i.e. My basic beliefs are: x,y,z). Then, begin writing a chapter about x, then y, then z. After writing a basic philosophical statement add some more "big" words to replace more common ones (i.e. good, bad, nice, etc.)and transitions to get your basic idea across. After doing so, re-read and make sure you make sense; afterwords read it to a friend or relative and see how they react; after correcting what mistakes they are able to find in your grammar or logic you are practically done. Feel free to and an introduction and/or conclusion or have a friend/relative do that for you. Read Thomas Paine's Common Sense, or some Immanuel Kant to get a good format as well.