Smith's grading scale here
Zoom link to Jennifer Driscoll's office hours, Thursdays 12:30-2:30
Zoom link to Nicolas Wittstock's office hours, Mondays 10:30-12:30
Zoom link to Mark Smith's office hours, Mondays and Wednesdays, 5:00-6:00 PM
You can find the full syllabus here
Section syllabus for AA and AB (Jennifer Driscoll) here
Section syllabus for AC and AD (Nicolas Wittstock) here
Thursday, September 30 Introduction to the class (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Arnold Kling, Signs That We Face an Epistemological Crisis: Book Titles, 2021, read
Stephen Colbert, The Word—Truthiness (just the first segment lasting 2:40, not the whole episode), watch
Kendra Cherry, The Benefits of Being Open-Minded, read
Kathryn Schulz, On Being Wrong, watch
The Economist, Jonathan Rauch Defends “The Constitution of Knowledge”, read
Heterodox Academy, The HxA Way, read
Van Jones, Safe Spaces on College Campuses, watch
Robert George and Cornel West, Truth Seeking, Democracy, and Freedom of Thought and Expression, read
Caroline Sutton, ‘We Know Who You Are’: Group Threatens Doctors, Others Wearing Masks Outside Williamson Co. School Board Meeting, read
Friday, October 1 Introduction to your Friday sections
Tuesday, October 5 Premodern approaches to truth (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Augustine of Hippo, letter 93 to Vincentius, chapter 2, paragraphs 6 and 8; and chapter 6, paragraph 20, read
Martin Luther, Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, read
Pope Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors. Focus on #s 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 14, 15, 18, 21, 55, 77, 78, and 80, and remember that these are propositions Pope Pius IX is condemning, read
Answers in Genesis, Can We Prove the Bible is True?, read
Catholic Answers, Papal Infallibility, read
Wikipedia entry on film version of Fiddler on the Roof, read
Jerry Bock and Sheldon Harnick, lyrics and music to Tradition, watch
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Albert Mohler, Postmodernism and Society, watch
Thomas Aquinas, The Sin of Blasphemy, read
Thursday, October 7 Modern approaches to truth (slides)
Response memo #1 due
Read/listen/watch (required):
Skeptic Presents, What Is a Skeptic?, watch
Scott Lilienfeld, Intellectual Humility: A Guiding Principle for the Skeptical Movement?, read
Steven Pinker, Reason Is Not Negotiable, read
New York Times, It Is Every American’s Right to Curse the President, read
Logan Chipkin, Dogma Is Not Confined to the Cathedral, read
Irshad Manji, Rethinking Life on the Left, watch
Ravi Kudesia, Diversity Is Not Enough: Why Collective Intelligence Requires Both Diversity and Disagreement, read
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Julia Galef, How to Think, interviewed by Coleman Hughes, watch
George Orwell, Politics and the English Language, read
Friday, October 8 Premodern and modern approaches to truth
Tuesday, October 12 Postmodern approaches to truth (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, read
Reza Aslan, interview on The Daily Show, watch
Jesse Singal, Reza Aslan on What the New Atheists Get Wrong about Islam, read
Then & Now, Understanding Derrida, Deconstruction, and Of Grammatology, watch
Ross Douthat, How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right, read
Nick Gillespie, Libertarian Postmodernism, watch
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Lindsay Beyerstein, On Bullshit: Harry Frankfurt, Donald Trump, and Indifference to Truth, watch
Michel Foucault, The Subject and Power, read
Thursday, October 14 Premodern, modern, and postmodern approaches to truth (slides)
Response memo #2 due
Read/listen/watch (required):
Helen Pluckrose, The Evolution of Postmodern Thought, watch
Contrapoints (Natalie Wynn), on Jordan Peterson, watch
The Economist, Echoes of the Confessional State, read (the article is slow to load on Canvas; you can either wait for it, or download it for faster access)
Suzanna Danuta Walters, Why Can’t We Hate Men?, read
Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African American History and Culture, Aspects & Assumptions of Whiteness & White Culture in the United States, read part 1 read part 2
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
An Evening with Steven Pinker and Jonathan Rauch, on The Constitution of Knowledge, watch
Ben Shapiro, Religious Belief and the Enlightenment, interviewed by Jordan Peterson, watch
Friday, October 15 Comparing the approaches to truth
Tuesday, October 19 Fallacies and biases that undermine reasoning (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
15 Logical Fallacies You Should Know before Getting into a Debate, read
Carol Tavris, Why We Believe—Long After We Shouldn’t, watch
David Robson, The Intelligence Trap, interviewed on The Middle Way Society, watch
Michael Patrick Lynch, Teaching Humility in an Age of Arrogance, (could be slow to load--click download for faster access), read
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Carl Sagan, The Fine Art of Baloney Detection, read
Musa al-Gharbi, There’s No Reason to be Smug about the Partisan Diploma Divide, read
Tom Chivers, So You Think You’re Open-Minded, read
Thursday, October 21 Flaws in intuition (slides)
Response memo #3 due
Read/listen/watch (required):
Laurie Santos, How Monkeys Mirror Human Irrationality, watch
Sheena Iyengar, The Art of Choosing, watch
Andrew Shtulman, Scienceblind, interviewed by Michael Shermer on Science Salon, watch or listen
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Annie Duke, Thinking in Bets, interviewed by Julia Galef on Rationally Speaking, listen
Informed Choice Radio Personal Finance Podcast, David Hand on The Improbability Principle, listen
Friday, October 22 The search for rationality in forming beliefs and making decisions
Tuesday, October 26 Flaws in perception and memory (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Daniel Simons, Seeing the World As It Isn’t, watch
Steven Novella, Body Snatchers, Phantom Limbs, and Alien Hands, read
Elizabeth Loftus, How Reliable Is Your Memory, watch
Julian Sanchez, Don’t Do Your Own Research, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Hidden Brain, The Double Standard, interview with psychologist Emily Pronin, listen
Kelsey Piper, How to Reason about Covid, and Other Hard Things, interviewed by Julia Galef on Rationally Speaking, listen
Thursday, October 28 Midterm exam
Friday, October 29 No class today. We'll pick up with new material on Tuesday.
Tuesday, November 2 Origins and effects of political polarization
Read/listen/watch (required):
Shadi Hamid, America Without God, read from The Atlantic's site, or here if you have trouble accessing it
Thomas Edsall, America, We Have a Problem: The Rise of ‘Political Sectarianism’ Is Putting Us All in Danger, read from NYT site, or here if you have trouble accessing it
Yascha Mounk, The Perils of 180ism, read
Saturday Night Live, Black Jeopardy with Tom Hanks, watch
David Horsey, Local Politics Has Gone National, read (make sure to read both the political cartoon and the accompanying article)
Lilliana Mason, Uncivil Agreement, interviewed by Russ Roberts on Econtalk, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Douglas Ahler, Something Democrats and Republicans Have in Common, read
Nat Brown, Reopening the American Mind, read
Hidden Brain, Not at the Dinner Table, interview with Yanna Krupnikov, listen
Thursday, November 4 Tribalism and truth (slides)
Response memo #4 due
Read/listen/watch (required):
Tom Jacobs, Why We Engage in Tribalism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating, read
David French, The Descent of the Partisan Mind, read
Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology, read
Ezra Klein, How Politics Makes Us Stupid, read
Hyrum Lewis, Our Big Fight Over Nothing: The Political Spectrum Does Not Exist, read
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Andrew Sullivan, America Wasn’t Built for Humans, read
Nicholas Phillips, What My Fellow Conservatives Can Learn from the Left, read
Behind the Curve, documentary, available with a Netflix subscription, or by payment at Amazon, iTunes, and Google Play
Friday, November 5 Polarization and tribalism
Tuesday, November 9 The limits of individual rationality (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Rebecca Saxe, How We Read Each Other’s Minds, watch
Jonathan Haidt, The Rationalist Delusion in Moral Responsibility, watch (only the first 17:55)
Robert Kurzban, Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite, talk at The Amazing Meeting 2014, watch
Edge, The Argumentative Theory, A Conversation with Hugo Mercier, read
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Timothy Wilson, Strangers to Ourselves, APS Award Address, watch
Adrian Bardon, Humans Are Hardwired to Dismiss Facts That Don’t Fit their Worldview, read
Thursday, November 11 (Veterans’ Day)
Response memo #5 due
Friday, November 12 Individual rationality
Tuesday, November 16 Experts and expertise (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Tom Nichols, The Death of Expertise, talk at Politics and Prose bookstore, watch
Steven Novella, Scientific Consensus, read
Ross Douthat on the Trouble with Experts, interviewed by Yascha Mounk, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Kerrington Powell and Vinay Prasad, The Noble Lies of Covid-19, read
Ryan Long, When an Expert Disagrees with the Experts, watch
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Brian Gallagher, Wikipedia and the Wisdom of Polarized Crowds, read
Suhan Kacholia, Expertise, Trust, and Partisanship, read
Thursday, November 18 Universities and truth (slides)
Response memo #6 due (Note: this week's memo is OPTIONAL)
Read/listen/watch (required):
University of Chicago, Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression, read
American Association of University Professors, Statement on Professional Ethics, read
Musa al-Gharbi, On the Relationship between Ideological and Demographic Diversity, read
Musa al-Gharbi, Difference and Repetition in the Viewpoint Diversity Space, read
Heterodox Academy, Understanding the Campus Expression Climate, read
Lara Schwartz, False Equivalence, interviewed by Chris Martin on Half Hour of Heterodoxy, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Jacalyn Kelly, Tara Sadeghieh, and Khosrow Adeli, Peer Review in Scientific Publications, read
Bonnie Kristian, I Worked at a Website that Rated Professors for Political Bias, read
Friday, November 19 Experts, universities, and truth
Monday, November 22 Paper due
Tuesday, November 23 Science and truth (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Lee McIntyre, The Case for Science, watch
Naomi Oreskes, Why Trust Science?, watch
Stuart Ritchie, Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth, interviewed by Michael Shermer on Science Salon, watch or listen
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Ed Yong, A Waste of 1000 Research Papers, read
Arthur Lupia, What’s the Value of Social Science?, read
Diego Reinero and Jan Van Vavel, Researchers’ Politics Don’t Undermine their Scientific Results, read
Thursday, November 25 (no class—Thanksgiving break)
Friday, November 26 (no class—Thanksgiving break)
Tuesday, November 30 Science denial on the left and right (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Luana Maroja, Self-Censorship on Campus is Bad for Science, read
Oren Cass, No, Not that Evidence, read
Jerry Taylor, A Paid Climate Change Skeptic Switches Sides, interviewed by Indre Viskontas on Inquiring Minds, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Marty Makary, Lose the Mask! Eat the Turkey! And Other Sane Advice for Thanksgiving, interviewed by Bari Weiss, listen (you'll find it easier to concentrate on the audio recording if you listen while you're doing something else, such as walking, working out, doing the dishes, etc.)
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Alice Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger, interviewed by Gad Saad, watch
Thursday, December 2 Does (or can) the news media uncover truth? (slides)
Response memo #7 due
Read/listen/watch (required):
Society of Professional Journalists, Code of Ethics (1926 version), read
Society of Professional Journalists, Code of Ethics (2014 version), read
Associated Press, Statement of News Values and Principles, read
American Press Institute, The Lost Meaning of ‘Objectivity’, read
Brent Cunningham, Re-thinking Objectivity, read
Wesley Lowery, A Reckoning over Objectivity, Led by Black Journalists, read
Louise Perry, An Untrue Claim in the New Yorker Speaks Volumes, read
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Margaret Sullivan, The Disinformation System that Trump Unleashed Will Outlast Him, read
Bret Stephens, Media Groupthink and the Lab-Leak Theory, read
Friday, December 3 Science, the media, and truth
Tuesday, December 7 Objectivity and subjectivity in the news media; moral truths (slides) (Note: the Panopto recording for today's class goes silent at 1:16:35, when the batteries in the wireless microphone died.)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Danah Boyd, Did Media Literacy Backfire?, read
The Onion, CNN Holds Morning Meeting to Decide What Viewers Should Panic about for Rest of Day, read
Carolyn Hax, Learning to Cope in a Chaotic World, read
Kate Starbird, Disinformation Campaigns Are Murky Blends of Truth, Lies and Sincere Beliefs: Lessons from the Pandemic, read
The Economist, From Congo to the Capitol, Conspiracy Theories Are Surging, read (might take a little while to appear after you click; you can download it instead through a tab on the upper right after you click)
Nina Schick, Deepfakes and the Infocalypse, interviewed on Intelligence Squared, watch or listen
Read/listen/watch (extra/optional):
Ezra Klein, The Media Divide Beyond Left-Right, read (might take a little while to appear after you click; you can download it instead through a tab on the upper right after you click)
Thursday, December 9 Courts as venues for truth-seeking (slides)
Read/listen/watch (required):
Mark Alan Smith, The Rise of Do-It-Yourself Religion, read
Thomas Harper, On Pleasurable Beliefs, read
Friday, December 10 Course review
Thursday, December 16 Final exam from 4:30-6:20