A Proper Introduction

It's due, I suppose.

Welcome to Ain Sophistry, a humble but focused attempt to dismantle, dissolve, or at the very least dissect some of the cognitive impediments to a mutually fruitful inter-articulation of science and philosophy. Topics may include, but almost certainly will not be limited to: cognition and consciousness; the prospects of an objective secular ethics; reduction and other intertheoretic relations; epistemology and semantics in a neuroscientific context; ontology and modality in a neuroscientific context; arguments for and against the existence of God; evolutionary psychology and the broader role of teleological (or quasi- or pseudo-teleological) explanations of human behavior

Participation is strongly encouraged.

At present, anyone can post here (to those of you who were unable to post earlier, my apologies; the problem has been fixed); I ask only that you observe the following guidelines:

1. Be civil. Many of the topics covered here--consciousness, morality, God--we have strong opinions about. Don't be afraid to share them (preferably with appropriate support), but know and respect the difference between trying to raise consciousness and trying to raise blood pressure.

2. Don't spam. Just...don't.

3. Don't merely preach. I would have never thought to include this were it not for certain recent forum experiences. Incessantly preachy posts with little or no argumentative support will be considered spam and treated as such. You are, of course, welcome to share and try to persuade others of your view, but I expect you to engage them as a party genuinely interested in these issues, not as a bot thoughtlessly spewing boilerplate and fishing for converts or drama.

Nothing too Draconian, I hope.

Have fun.