Know-It-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

by Michael P. Lynch

Overview

Winner • National Council of Teachers of English - George Orwell Award for Distinguished Contribution to Honesty and Clarity in Public Language

The “philosopher of truth” (Jill Lepore, The New Yorker) returns with a clear-eyed and timely critique of our culture’s narcissistic obsession with thinking that “we” know and “they” don’t.

Taking stock of our fragmented political landscape, Michael Patrick Lynch delivers a trenchant philosophical take on digital culture and its tendency to make us into dogmatic know-it-alls. The internet—where most shared news stories are not even read by the person posting them—has contributed to the rampant spread of “intellectual arrogance.” In this culture, we have come to think that we have nothing to learn from one another; we are rewarded for emotional outrage over reflective thought; and we glorify a defensive rejection of those different from us.

Interweaving the works of classic philosophers such as Hannah Arendt and Bertrand Russell and imposing them on a cybernetic future they could not have possibly even imagined, Lynch delves deeply into three core ideas that explain how we’ve gotten to the way we are:

• our natural tendency to be overconfident in our knowledge;
• the tribal politics that feed off our tendency;
• and the way the outrage factory of social media spreads those politics of arrogance and blind conviction.

In addition to identifying an ascendant “know-it-all-ism” in our culture, Lynch offers practical solutions for how we might start reversing this dangerous trend—from rejecting the banality of emoticons that rarely reveal insight to embracing the tenets of Socrates, who exemplified the humility of admitting how little we often know about the world, to the importance of dialogue if we want to know more. With bracing and deeply original analysis, Lynch holds a mirror up to American culture to reveal that the sources of our fragmentation start with our attitudes toward truth. Ultimately, Know-It-All Society makes a powerful new argument for the indispensable value of truth and humility in democracy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781631497919
Publisher:	Liveright Publishing Corporation
Publication date:	07/14/2020
Pages:	244
Sales rank:	376,094
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Michael P. Lynch is Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor and director of the Humanities Institute at the University of Connecticut. His previous books include True to Life and The Internet of Us.

Table of Contents

Preamble: No Ordinary Question 1

1 Montaigne's Warning 9

Nothing More Wretched 9

Like Ears of Corn 14

A Very Social Attitude 18

2 The Outrage Factory 27

Googie Knows All 27

Fake News and Information Pollution 30

Sharing Emotions 35

3 Where the Spade Turns 51

Why We Don't Change Our Minds 51

What Kind of Person Are You? 53

From Belief to Conviction 62

4 Ideologies of Arrogance and the American Right 75

Roots of Authoritarianism 75

Telling It Like It Is 79

The Logic of Status Threat 84

Arrogance, Ignorance, and Contempt 92

5 Liberalism and the Philosophy of Identity Politics 103

Arrogant Liberals 103

Misunderstanding the Politics of Identity 104

The Rationality Brand 121

The Politics of Contempt 130

6 Truth and Humility as Democratic Values 139

Socratic Lessons 139

Intellectual Humility 149

A Space of Reasons 154

Truth and Democracy 163

Acknowledgments 171

Notes 173

References and Additional Sources 183

Index 197

Editorial Reviews

06/03/2019

Philosopher Lynch (The Internet of Us) delivers a well-intentioned but flawed polemic that attempts, but fails, to resolve the causes of 21st-century American political polarization. Arrogance, he suggests, is the “single attitude most closely associated with our national consciousness,” and it leads Americans to view anyone associated with the other party as “dishonest, uninformed, and downright immoral.” This problem is amplified, he writes, by cognitive biases, the fear of ignorance and desire to have confidence, the “preference-tracking structure of our digital platforms” that allows users to filter out facts that would challenge their convictions, and bad-faith news reporting. He takes both conservatives and liberals to task, though the case for liberals’ arrogance offers much sparser and more anecdotal evidence (a conversation at a party) than the one on conservatives (which analyzes, for example, persistent misunderstandings of #BlackLivesMatter and Colin Kaepernick’s kneeling). For Lynch, democratic society requires that all have an intellectually humble attitude and pursue truth as a universal good, but he doesn’t clarify what, specifically, would result from the widespread adoption of this attitude, and the book’s end descends into an obscure, abstract meditation on the nature of truth. This plea for civic, civil deliberation fails to distinguish itself from the glut of similarly impassioned, similarly vague Trump-era political philosophy books. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"Professor Lynch not only diagnoses the reasons for our current predicament but also suggests ways in which we can begin to challenge our tribal arrogance. Know-It-All Society is an important (and wonderfully readable) book."

David Edmonds

"Michael Lynch has done it. Finally, someone has answered the question that has exasperated so many in this ‘post-truth’ era: Why are some people unconvinced by facts? The answer lies not in irrationality but identity. In these polarized times, to question someone’s beliefs is to question their sense of self. In this book, Lynch brilliantly demonstrates that a solution to the problem of belief lies not just in valuing truth and evidence but reforming some of the toxic mental attitudes that exist not just in others but ourselves."

Lee McIntyre

"Michael Patrick Lynch’s book uses the classics of philosophy to examine why our society, in a modern age of technology and education, is increasingly centered around a dysfunctional, narcissistic rejection of objectivity and reason. Know-It-All Society challenges us to consider why we arrogantly refuse to listen to each other, no matter what our politics or our beliefs."

Tom Nichols

"A sharp and engaging critique of the tribal arrogance that’s so common in contemporary life, by one of our leading public philosophers. Lynch has a lot of provocative ideas—about social media, the rise of Donald Trump, whether we have to listen to neo-Nazis, and much else—and his rich book is a delight to engage with."

Paul Bloom

"If we have learned anything over these past few years, it is that democracy is difficult. In this essential book for our times, Michael Lynch unflinchingly lays out its central conundrums in painfully recognizable ways, and bravely offers hope, and perhaps, some ways out. A remarkable achievement."

Jason Stanley

"A timely book on an important topic in our political culture today. Lynch is just the person to bring philosophical insight to these challenges—of trust, expertise, disagreement, and the prospects for conversation across the deep political chasms of our day."

Sanford Goldberg

"This book is both a treasure and a treat—that rare volume that is philosophically rich, politically relevant, and lyrically written."

Eboo Patel

"The book is accessible, admirably concise, clearly written, and richly insightful, both as a cultural diagnosis and as an exemplar of applying philosophical inquiry—ancient or otherwise—to everyday problems."

Booklist - Chad Comello

2019-06-11
A philosophy professor tackles our society's increasingly arrogant embrace of convictions that are often misguided and not reasonably supported.

In this relevant new book, Lynch (Director, Humanities Institute/Univ. of Connecticut: The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data, 2016, etc.) expands on the issue he addressed previously: how our reasoning skills are being undermined by the vast yet unprocessed amount of information found on the internet. He shows how the internet and social media are damaging our ability to process facts, particularly in relation to politics, instilling rigid views that often quickly escalate into an unwavering rejection of those who may have alternate views. Ultimately, we come to believe we can no longer learn from one another. As an example of how social media can stir up outrage—rather than reasonable thinking—Lynch considers Facebook's response emoticons to news events or claims of fact and suggests a more useful commenting structure: "justified by the evidence," "not justified by the evidence," and "need more information." The author readily supports his argument by referencing philosophical ideas culled from the works of Montaigne, Bertrand Russell, Hannah Arendt, and Socrates. Lynch ultimately remains objective in assessing arguments on both sides of the political landscape, asserting that the right and left can each learn from the other. His bottom-line resolution is to accept with humility what we do know. "To strive after truth and humility means that we must always be ready to consider new evidence and new experiences, and that we cannot rest content in our convictions," he writes. "Part of being intellectually humble is treating truth, not just agreement, as a goal of inquiry." Though the author's argument is cogent, his academic approach, while not overly opaque, may miss a wider audience of readers—on all areas of the political spectrum—who could most benefit from his message.

Lynch offers an insightful, timely message that may be too intellectually articulated to appeal to those it could best serve.

Kirkus Reviews