Schedule of Topics and Readings:
Note: Particular authors appear on the syllabus not because the instructor necessarily endorses them but because they are relevant to the course. Some of the readings, videos, and podcasts may change as the quarter moves forward. You will always receive notice of any changes at least one class session in advance.
Tuesday, March 31 Introduction to the class
Read/listen/watch:
Van Jones, Safe Spaces on College Campuses, 2017, watch
The Economist, From Congo to the Capitol, Conspiracy Theories Are Surging, 2021, read
Danah Boyd, Did Media Literacy Backfire?, 2017, read
Ryan Long, I Joined the Disinformation Governance Board, 2022, watch
Kendra Cherry, How To Be Open-Minded, 2022, read
Part I: Premodern, Modern, and Postmodern Approaches to Truth
Thursday, April 2 Premodern approaches to truth
Read/listen/watch:
Thomas Aquinas, The Sin of Blasphemy, 1269 (approximately)
Pope Pius IX, Syllabus of Errors, 1864. 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
Answers in Genesis, Can We Prove the Bible is True?, 2011
Catholic Answers, Papal Infallibility, 2004
Tom Pennington, The Legacy of Absolute Truth, 2022
Friday, April 3 Introduction to your Friday sections
Tuesday, April 7 Modern approaches to truth
Read/listen/watch:
Steven Pinker, Reason Is Non-Negotiable, 2018
Skeptics Society, What Is A Skeptic?, 2013
Lee McIntyre, The Case for Science, 2019
Jonathan Zimmerman, Why Free Speech?, 2021
Julia Galef, Why ‘Scout Mindset’ Is Crucial to Good Judgment, 2016
Melanie Trecek-King, A Life Preserver for Staying Afloat in a Sea of Misinformation, 2022
Wednesday, April 8
Acknowledgment of course policies due
Thursday, April 9 Postmodern approaches to truth
Read/listen/watch:
Roland Barthes, The Death of the Author, 1967
Reza Aslan, interview on The Daily Show, 2015
Jesse Singal, Reza Aslan on What the New Atheists Get Wrong about Islam, 2014
Ross Douthat, How Michel Foucault Lost the Left and Won the Right, 2021
Nick Gillespie, Postmodern Libertarianism, 2019
Friday, April 10 Premodern and modern approaches to truth
Part II: How Individuals Pursue Truth and the Ways They Can Fail
Tuesday, April 14 Fallacies and biases that undermine reasoning
Read/listen/watch:
Melanie Trecek-King, Guide to the Most Common Logical Fallacies, 2023
Melanie Trecek-King, Guide to the Most Common Cognitive Biases and Heuristics, 2023
Carol Tavris, Why We Believe—Long After We Shouldn’t, 2017
The Economist, The Dangers of Data, 2025
David Robson, The Intelligence Trap, interviewed on The Middle Way Society, 2019
Thursday, April 16 Flaws in intuition
Read/listen/watch:
Daniel Kahneman, The Marvels and the Flaws of Intuitive Thinking, 2011
Melanie Trecek-King, Should You Trust Your Intuition?, 2023
Laurie Santos, How Monkeys Mirror Human Irrationality, 2010
Charles Wheelan, Common Probability Errors to Avoid, 2012
Friday, April 17 Fallacies and biases; flaws in intuition
Tuesday, April 21 Flaws in perception and memory
Read/listen/watch:
Daniel Simons, Seeing the World As It Isn’t, 2011
Melanie Trecek-King, Four Ways Your Personal Experiences Can Lead You Astray, 2023
Elizabeth Loftus, How Reliable Is Your Memory, 2013
Jennifer Sey, Doctor’s Orders, 2022
Melanie Trecek-King, The Problem with Doing Your Own Research, 2021
Thursday, April 23 Origins and effects of political polarization
Read/listen/watch:
Thomas Edsall, America, We Have a Problem: The Rise of ‘Political Sectarianism’ Is Putting
Us All in Danger, 2020
Kat Rosenfield, Why I Keep Getting Mistaken for a Conservative, 2022
Soumya Ram, Before We Can Address Polarization, We Need to Establish Basic Facts, 2023
Jon Halpin, Voters Aren’t the Problem: It’s the Media and Political Institutions, 2023
Lilliana Mason, Uncivil Agreement, interviewed by Russ Roberts on Econtalk, 2018
The Oklahoma City Declaration, 2025
Friday, April 24 Flaws in perception and memory; political polarization; course review for midterm exam
Tuesday, April 28 First midterm exam
Thursday, April 30 Tribalism and truth
Read/listen/watch:
Tom Jacobs, Why We Engage in Tribalism, Nationalism, and Scapegoating, 2018
Ezra Klein, How Politics Makes Us Stupid, 2014
Yascha Mounk, The Perils of 180ism, 2021
Jerry Taylor, The Alternative to Ideology, 2018
Hyrum Lewis, Our Big Fight Over Nothing: The Political Spectrum Does Not Exist, 2020
Verlan Lewis and Hyrum Lewis, The Myth of Ideological Polarization, 2022
Friday, May 1 Tribalism and truth
Tuesday, May 5 The limits of individual rationality
Read/listen/watch:
Robert Kurzban, Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite, talk at The Amazing Meeting, 2014
Edge, The Argumentative Theory, A Conversation with Hugo Mercier, 2011
Scott Lilienfeld, Intellectual Humility: A Guiding Principle for the Skeptical Movement?, 2020
William Deresiewicz, Take a Position, Not a Side, 2023
Dan Williams, On Highbrow Misinformation, 2025
Part III: Truth-Seeking Institutions and their Limitations
Thursday, May 7 Experts and science
Read/listen/watch:
U.K. National Health Service, Homeopathy, 2024
Nikita Lalwani and Sam Winter-Levy, When Every Opinion Is as Good as Any Other: On “The
Death of Expertise”, 2017
Naomi Oreskes, Why Trust Science?, talk at The Royal Institution, 2021
Dan Williams, How AI Will Reshape Public Opinion, 2026
Martha McKinney, review of Barbara Hofer and Gale Sinatra, Science Denial: Why It Happens
and What to Do about It, 2022
Friday, May 8 Individual rationality; experts and science
Tuesday, May 12 Limitations of scientific institutions and practices
Read/listen/watch:
Stuart Ritchie, When Science Goes Wrong, 2022
Vinay Prasad, A Decade of Reversal: An Analysis of 146 Contradicted Medical Practices, 2013
The Babylon Bee, How the Food Pyramid Was Created, 2025
Mark Alan Smith, Masking Uncertainty in Public Health, 2023
Paul Bloom, Why Progressives Should Question Their Favorite Scientific Findings, 2024
Thursday, May 14 Universities and truth
Read/listen/watch:
University of Chicago, Report of the Committee on Freedom of Expression, 2014
American Association of University Professors, Statement on Professional Ethics, 2009
Payton Jones, et al., What Students Fear vs. What Happens When Students Discuss
Controversial Topics
Lara Schwartz, False Equivalence, interviewed by Chris Martin on Half Hour of Heterodoxy,
2019
Jon Shields, Yuval Aunus, and Stephanie Muravchik, We Analyzed University Syllabi: There’s a
Monoculture, 2025
Musa al-Gharbi, Human Nature is Our Problem, 2024
Friday, May 15 Limitations of scientific institutions and practices; universities and truth
Tuesday, May 19 Second midterm exam
Thursday, May 21 Does (or can) the news media uncover truth?
Read/listen/watch:
Society of Professional Journalists, Code of Ethics, 1926 version
Society of Professional Journalists, Code of Ethics, 2014 version
Associated Press, Statement of News Values and Principles, 2018
Scott Alexander, The Media Very Rarely Lies, 2022
Carolyn Hax, Learning to Cope in a Chaotic World, 2020
Friday, May 23 The news media
Tuesday, May 26 Moral truths
Read/listen/watch:
EBSCO, entries on Morality, Normative Ethics, Metaethics, Moral Relativism, Deontological
Ethics, Consequentialism (ethics), and A Theory of Justice by John Rawls.
Thursday, May 28 Courts as venues for truth-seeking
Read/listen/watch:
American Bar Association, How Courts Work, 2021. Read all entries from “Diagram of How a
Case Moves through the Courts” to “Appeals.”
Friday, May 29 Moral truths; courts
Tuesday, June 2 Truth in politics: facts, opinions, values, and the will of the people
Read/listen/watch:
Andre Bächtiger, John S. Dryzek, Jane Mansbridge, and Mark D. Warren, Deliberative
Democracy: An Introduction
Dan Williams, Should We Trust Misinformation Experts to Decide What Counts as
Misinformation?, 2024
Thursday, June 4 Individual and institutional means of seeking truth
Read/listen/watch:
Thomas Harper, On Pleasurable Beliefs, 2021
Isaac Saul, Misinformation Is Here to Stay (And That’s OK), 2022
Friday, June 5 Course review
Monday, June 8 Final exam (covering material from the entire quarter) from 10:30-12:20