The Wikireason project project has gone into hibernation (see front page). You may be interested in CruxLux, Debate Mapper, Chains of Reason or the Debate-pedia.

Forum Entrance

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The Wikireason project has made great progress, but has yet to establish a sustainable community. As such, we have been unable to maintain the quality of the content, and the project has gone into hibernation until conditions are appropriate to revive the project. Until then, only site administrators can modify the content. The entire content of the site may be downloaded as XML. Please check the Announcements page for information about when the project will resume. Further discussion of the project should be handled at the Meta webpage for Wikireason.

Welcome to Wikireason Beta, a place where thinkers can gather their ideas and receive criticism from others. We are developing a collection of arguments on all issues, from all perspectives, that will be available to everyone. This collection is in the form of a Wiki, rather than an electronic mailing list or traditional Internet forum. The Wiki format takes full advantage of the structure of the World Wide Web, to make discussion much more productive than it can be in those traditional, linear formats. Any person may edit any of the discussions; you don't even need to register!

Issues

Philosophy

International relations

Culture

Crime

Environment

Science

Technology

Economics

Politics

Constituencies

More

See the prospective issues page for suggestions for future topics.

Why a Wiki format?

A major advantage of Wikis is that the content of the Wiki can be edited repeatedly to improve clarity and completeness, and organized better than traditional, linear debate formats. Furthermore, it places the arguments in a timeless and impersonal framework. By separating the content from the person who created it, the Wiki allows readers to focus on the debates that interest them without being distracted by off-topic discussions, which can be moved to a separate page. In turn, this allows thousands to gather in one forum without their collective noise interfering with individual discussions.

How it works

At Wikireason, any discussion may be edited by any person, meaning that articles develop by a consensus process. Editors do not need to agree on the issue being debated, they just need to agree that the arguments given for or against the proposal are coherent.

Pages are organized by topic, with a separate section dedicated to each proposition or assertion made about that topic. Within each section, there is a collection of arguments that each support the assertion. Arguments are structured as logic trees, which clearly state the required premises for the argument, and provide opportunities for those premises to be challenged. See Wikireason:Organization for active discussion on organization.

Community

A goal of this project is to build communities with common goals. Each registered user has a personal page, which may be used to express personal priorities. Users with similar priorities may form interest groups, which may produce platforms where they try to reach a consensus on their priorities.

Inspiration

This debate format is inspired by Wikipedia, an impressive free encyclopedia that takes advantage of the structure of the World Wide Web. A strength of Wikipedia is its great community. An equally productive community can be created here. Learn how to participate in a Wiki project with the Wikipedia tutorial. Wikireason is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation.

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