KnowItAll Society, Michael P. Lynch
KnowItAll Society, Michael P. Lynch
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Know-It-All Society
Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture

Author: Michael P. Lynch

Narrator: William Sarris

Unabridged: 4 hr 42 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/13/2019

Synopsis

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.

About Michael P. Lynch

Michael P. Lynch is the director of the Humanities Institute and a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut. His books include True to Life, an Editor's Choice by the New York Times Book Review. A recipient of the Medal for Research Excellence from the University of Connecticut's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Lynch has held grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and is a frequent contributor to the New York Times. He lives in Storrs, Connecticut.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Ryan on August 22, 2019

If you had to summarize the main problem with our political culture in one sentence, you might borrow the line from Yeats that reads, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” Or, if you prefer, you could go with Bertrand Russell's formulation: “The trouble wi......more

Goodreads review by Peter on October 31, 2019

Reviews – Know-It-All Society by Michael Patrick Lynch Please give my Amazon review a helpful vote - [URL not allowed]-re... This is a sad book. It is sad because the author, Michael P. Lynch, thinks he is showing us how to avoid the traps of cognitive dissonance but all he manages i......more

Goodreads review by Chris on March 11, 2024

4th: I’ve read this book about once per year since I first picked it up a few years ago. Whenever I get to a point of getting extremely frustrated by people who practice 0 intellectual humility, I read this book and it helps chill me out. Michael P. Lynch explains why we think we know more than we do......more

Goodreads review by Todd on October 18, 2019

Review title: Truth, belief, and conviction The Trump era in American politics has generated shelf-fulls of books explaining the incivility in American politics today, usually starting from the premise of the total incorrectiness of those on the side opposite the author's viewpoint. I know, because i......more

Goodreads review by Dan on September 13, 2019

"There's nothing certain except that nothing is certain"- Montaigne "It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.", Mark Twain "Reason is the slave of the passions" - David Hume How did we get to this point? As a species, we know more about o......more

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