The chief purpose of the Cognizant Society is to produce and proliferate an antidote to the uninspired, knee-jerk reactions that have always polluted socio-political discourse. We disagree with that speed and volume trump depth. Our method is one of pause—of making time to engage critically with ideas before producing responses. In sharing the fruits of our meditations, we aim to contribute positively to online discourse, espousing opinions that are not merely reactionary but genuinely progressive, human-oriented, and buttressed by scientifically informed meliorism.

Our essays generally focus on scientific and humanistic progressivism—that is, the cautious acceptance of new economic, philosophical, political and social items—against ignorance and traditionalism, or resistance to change. They are nonetheless varied in subject; we feel that interdisciplinary inclusivity armors us against the arsenic of extremism and single-mindedness. Our general position is what we call scientific humanism: an emphasis on secular humanism and empirical science as instruments with which to achieve and defend civil liberties, social justice, and the improvement of the human condition. There have been those in history who have analogized philosophical and ethical positions with either stringency or slackness. We aim to strike a strong but flexible position—what we might call conditional confidence—in that we are passionate in our positions but acknowledge that they may be improved upon or changed by discourse and new understandings.

“A form of humanist theory and practice that is based on the principles and methods of science; specifically the doctrine that human beings should employ scientific methods in studying human life and behaviour, in order to direct the welfare and future of mankind in a rational and beneficial manner…”
—Oxford English Dictionary, “scientific humanism”

A hunger for truth inspired this project. Truth is not gained by instinct, but by empiricism: it is what we must collectively seek to glean from a vast universe steeped in ignorance. Humans are imbued with a paleolithic psyche and are quickly given to short-term hedonism and superstition. Still, through our species’s standing against this, the human condition has been ameliorated substantially—not least by progressivism, secularism, and humanism—and, we hope, there is much more to come. If there is, though, much remains to be done to increase the accuracy and quality of discourse and public thought. This requires real effort and intellectual cooperation. The Cognizant Society attempts to provide a platform for this effort and cooperation.

This site can be linked to with https://bit.ly/cogsoc. It maintains a subreddit at r/COGSOC, where comments on and criticisms of our writings are welcome.

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