Know-it-all Society ― Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

Taking stock of our fragmented political landscape, celebrated philosopher and TED speaker Michael Patrick Lynch argues that we are becoming a culture of dogmatic know-it-alls. The spread of what Lynch calls “epistemic arrogance” makes us think we have nothing to learn from one another, rewards an unbending commitment to one’s own opinions, and glorifies a defensive rejection of those who are different. Synthesizing years of research, Lynch offers a philosophical perspective on this crisis of arrogance in the age of the Internet. Delving deeply into three core ideas—overconfidence in our knowledge, the politics that feed off this tendency, and the way our social media encourages the supposed “end of truth”—Lynch offers solutions for how we, individually and collectively, can reverse this dangerous trend. A bracing and thought-provoking work, Know-It-All Society holds a mirror up to American culture and reveals the sources of our fragmentation to launch a powerful argument for the value of humility.