You can blame davidm for my presence here. He found this forum a few days ago and told me about it.

I'm not a professional philosopher, but I do have a layman's interest in philosophy. My primary area of interest is in the philosophy of science, as I am a student of biology. I'm also studying sociology, with an emphasis on the sociology of science, and that takes care of my desire to pontificate about issues that are somewhat more abstract than those I deal with in biology. Ideally, I'd like to work at a university, balancing teaching and original research, though many of my interests (like proteomics, genomics, biophysics, etc.) are also easily applicable to the private sector.

I'm also into political philosophy, an interest which has grown in inverse correlation to my interest in actual politics. I probably am involved in more street-level politics than 99% of the U.S. population, and yet there's only so many times I can deal with "OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST!" or "WHERE'S THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE!?" or watch the latest installment of the "STEVE POIZNER/MEG WHITMAN IS A LIBERAL!!!" California gubernatorial road show before I want to retreat into something where people argued cogently about big issues. I've gone through a few upheavals in my political life, from moderate conservative to social democrat to libertarian socialist (or anarchist, if you prefer), but I read with pleasure thinkers from all over the political spectrum-as long as they actually think. Russell Kirk, yes; Sean Hannity, no.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to nobody that I also like reading in general. In fact, I volunteer at a site called LibriVox that produces public domain audiobooks. I highly recommend this site for anyone who likes audiobooks. Most of the readings are acceptable, and there are a few gems. I've only rarely heard an unlistenable audiobook.

Doubtless I'll be inspired to post more about my favorite books as I continue here, but I will observe that Melville rocks my world and my current favorite novel is Paul Bowles' The Sheltering Sky.

I also like the arts and music. I play piano and sing (classically trained tenor) and compose a little, plus I am frequently attending concerts, the theatre, or operas. Right now I've got tickets to the Los Angeles' Opera's Ring, plus the last opera in the Long Beach Opera's season (Ricky Ian Gordon's Orpheus and Eurydice) and I cannot wait. I'll thus be seeing five operas in eight days. :a-ok:

That's pretty much it by way of introduction. I think I may enjoy it here.