Besterman Lecture 2021, Sophia Rosenfeld: How the Enlightenment understood truth & why that matters

The Voltaire Foundation warmly invites you to the 2021 Besterman Lecture: ‘How the Enlightenment understood truth — and why that matters’ by Professor Sophia Rosenfeld, Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History at the University of Pennsylvania.

Around the world, truth is ostensibly in crisis today. That crisis has been variously attributed to the rise of social media, the economic dislocations of late capitalism, and new forms of political opportunism. However, much of our current condition has its roots in conceptions of truth and untruth stemming from the Enlightenment, that is, the very particular cultural context in which democracy was re-envisioned on both sides of the Atlantic in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The Besterman Lecture will explore the paradoxical nature of Enlightenment thinking about truth and its legacy, including both its risks and its enduring promise.

The lecture was livestreamed and recorded on Thursday 18 November 2021, Grove Auditorium, Magdalen College. We are grateful to the Oxford University Podcast Team who managed the livestream on the day and provided the recording.