About

Our mission

Coordinates of Thought is a home for philosophy. Our aim is simple to say and slow to reach. We want to help each person find where they stand on the questions that matter, and to understand the people who stand somewhere else.

Philosophy belongs to everyone who has wondered what is real, what we can know, how to live, or how to die well. You do not need a degree to take part. You need a question, and the patience to hear an answer you did not expect.

Everything here is free to read, and membership is free too. Join when you want to post, reply, follow thinkers or keep a bookshelf.

What makes us different

Every tradition on one map

Many courses tell philosophy as a single road from Athens to Paris. We do not. Here, all of these traditions share the same nine categories:

• Greek & Roman, Medieval Christian and Modern European
• Indian, Buddhist, Chinese, and Japanese & Korean
• Islamic, Persian and Jewish
• African & Africana, Latin American and American
• Analytic and Continental

Indigenous philosophies are welcome too, from the Americas, Africa, Australia, the Pacific and beyond. Is a tradition you care about missing a label? When you post, tell the editors in the box Missing a tradition, school or thinker?

So a question about free will can draw on Augustine, the Stoics, Spinoza and the Buddhist idea of dependent origination in one thread. That is how the great questions have actually been asked: across the world, and across the centuries.

Explore by Categories or by Traditions.

Structured formats

Every topic takes one of four formats: Discussion, Question, Debate or Reading group. A Debate starts from one clear thesis, and every reply takes a side. An Explain question can have an accepted answer. A Reading group moves through one text, section by section. Structure makes it easier to disagree well. Start here explains each format.

The Journal

The Journal publishes longer essays by members. Every essay is read by an editor before it appears. It is the place for a worked-out thought rather than a first reaction. See Write for the Journal.

The Book corner

The Book corner gathers classic books of philosophy. Each has a short guide: what it is, why read it, and where to start. Members write reviews, keep a shelf, start reading groups and suggest books for the editors to add.

Thinkers A–Z

Thinkers A–Z holds more than 400 profiles, with dates, places, key ideas and major works. Search finds a thinker in any common spelling or script. Avicenna, Ibn Sina and ابن سينا all lead to the same page, and to every topic that names him.

How the site began

Coordinates of Thought grew out of a book. Its categories, parts and thinker profiles follow the map drawn in The Coordinates of Thought.

Our first conversations were written by the editors, in the voices of illustrative readers, to show how each format works.

Real members' conversations are now growing alongside them. Every new question, reply, review and essay adds to the map, and in time the members' own voices will fill it.

Who runs it

Coordinates of Thought was founded by Syed Raheel Shahzad. He is an author and systems thinker, and the Founder and Group CEO of The Syed Group. His other books explore existence, identity, morality and human responsibility.

His book The Coordinates of Thought is a map of the whole of philosophy. It sets out 131 questions, each with the answers given to it, who gave them, where, and what each answer costs. This site is built on that map, and its reading group is open to every member.

His method, as his own site puts it:

Observation before assumption. Evidence before conclusion. Coherence before confidence.

You can read more about his work at syedraheelshahzad.com. Questions for him personally are best sent to Ask SRS.

How the site is run

Editors

Editors are appointed by the site's administrators. They read new members' topics before they appear, and they read every Journal essay. They handle reports, keep labels in order and look after the map. They never browse private messages.

House rules

One rule sums up the rest: challenge ideas, never people. The House rules explain the others with examples. They also describe how moderation works and how to appeal a decision.

Written by people

Everything here should be written by the person whose name is on it. AI tools may help with spelling, grammar or translation, if you say so in your post. They must never write the argument. We want to hear how you think.

Free, with no advertising

The site is free to read and free to join. It shows no advertising and uses no third-party trackers. Our Privacy policy explains what we keep and why.

Get in touch

We especially welcome corrections. If we have a date, a name or an idea wrong, we want to know. Write to us through the Contact page, or at info@coordinatesofthought.com.

Ready to take part? Join for free and ask your first question.