Michael Shermer: Truth! What Is It? And How To Find It!

There are scientific truths, religious truths, historical truths, mythical truths, and more. In our current swamp of misinformation, disinformation, truthiness, rewritten history, conspiracy theories, “fake news,” and bald-faced lies, how do we discern actual facts and truth? What is “truth,” anyway? The Declaration of Independence claims that “We hold these truths to be self-evident.” What about those “truths”? These questions are crucial if we’re to have a functioning democracy. 

Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic magazine and author of the new book Truth, returns to our podium to tackle these issues with us. He will clarify the different kinds of truth, take us on an entertaining ride through some classic fallacies, and then show us how to figure out, within the context of the various types of “truth,” whether a particular “fact” is, in fact, factual. 

So join us for an informative discussion and maybe a few enjoyable, and illuminating, experiential exercises in which we'll practice tackling the problem of finding truth, then maybe have dinner afterward at a nearby restaurant!

A Personal Growth Member-led Forum program. Forums at the Club are organized and run by volunteer programmers who are members of The Commonwealth Club, and they cover a diverse range of topics. Learn more about our Forums.

Organizer: Eric Siegel 

The program contains EXPLICIT language. 

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