Truth and History by Michael Patrick Lynch, UConn

As authoritarians intuitively grasp, if you control what people know about the past, you can better control the future. George Orwell once raised an even more radical claim: that if you control the present, you control the past itself. This talk examines this claim by sketching an account of historical truth that partially validates Orwell’s thought and also helps us understand why the truth about history is so vital to a democratic way of life.

Zoom Link

https://msu.zoom.us/j/94209869479
Meeting ID: 942 0986 9479
Passcode: 986224

Bio:

Michael Patrick Lynch is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Provost Professor of the Humanities at the University of Connecticut. His books have been translated into a dozen languages and include On Truth in Politics: Why Democracy Demands It, The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, True to Life (Editor’s Choice, the New York Times Sunday Book Review) and Know-it-All Society, (winner of the 2019 George Orwell Award). Lynch’s work has been profiled in The New Yorker, The New York Times, Nature, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and many other publications worldwide. He lives in CT with his family and one very philosophical dog.