Truth & Certainty

Jeanne Proust at Online

Thu, Jul 16 at 8 p.m. | 75 minutes
Olios: Drop-in classes led by professors

We are nowadays all confronted with a very uncertain future, and it seems that our primary reaction to it is discomfort. Where is this discomfort coming from and what does it say about our relationship with the future? Is uncertainty always a dreadful thing? Why do we seek certitude?

“What then is truth? A movable host of metaphors, metonymies, and anthropomorphisms: in short, a sum of human relations which have been poetically and rhetorically intensified, transferred, and embellished…” (Nietzsche)

Defining truth is a challenge that philosophers, if not all of us, have been confronted with. Truth seems to be something objective - true statements are assertions, or beliefs that accurately describe reality. But a true statement also must be consistent with our other beliefs and the general perspective we have of the world.

We are nowadays all confronted with a very uncertain future, and it seems that our primary reaction to it is discomfort. Where is this discomfort coming from and what does it say about our relationship with the future? Is uncertainty always a dreadful thing? Why do we seek certitude?

In this Olio, we will explore various definitions of truth and the challenges that come along with each of these notions. Let's see if we might create a new agreement about the truth or even better, some new questions surrounding this elusive word.

Teacher: Jeanne Proust

After studying in Bordeaux, Berlin, and Paris, Jeanne Proust has been teaching Philosophy, Art History and French Literature for the last 10 years in the US. her research has focused on the pathologies of the willpower, both in philosophical and psychological perspectives, but her interests are wide: among many fields, she does research in Ethics, Philosophy of Technologies and Aesthetics.

Venue: Online

Zoom link will be sent upon signup.

Add to Calendar July 16, 20208 p.m. July 16, 2020 America/New_York Think Olio | Truth & Certainty We are nowadays all confronted with a very uncertain future, and it seems that our primary reaction to it is discomfort. Where is this discomfort coming from and what does it say about our relationship with the future? Is uncertainty always a dreadful thing? Why do we seek certitude? Online

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