It sounds like you have a mash-up of rationalism, constructivism, and nihilism. I'm enjoying trying to place your ideas within a schema. If you have been reading mostly the older philosophical works like Kant , I don't think that you'd find a definite ethos there; being living in a time where post-modern questions arise. Have you read any Foucault?

Are you attempting to develop an ethos of sorts? What is bringing you to philosophy?

There are lots of Ayn Rand fans around Steemit; if you consider reason, logic, rational thought one of the highest functions/values. Is she mentioned in the Coursera syllabus? I'm interested to learn more about her. I want to refute her stubborn rationalist thought. I don't think that rationalism is the highest virtue of thought to strive for. We can't seperate ourselves from the primordial functions of mind, I think we live less full lives doing so, not more. I want to deconstruct it, and learn the arguments against rationalism which are out there.

I'm also having fun trying to define active nihilism; where nihilism as an ethos is non-contradictory. But I don't want to read tons of dry philosophy to do it. I think I will reread Crime and Punishment to start. Do you like philosophical fiction or you prefer learning theory 'straight-up'?