Michael Patrick Lynch (born 1966) is an American philosopher who is Provost Professor of the Humanities and Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut. From 2014 to 2023 he was also the director of the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. As director of the Humanities Institute, he headed a Templeton-funded project on humility and conviction in public life.
Career Lynch's early work focused on various issues in the philosophy of truth. He has argued for a form of robust realism about truth that acknowledges some truths as relative without entailing nihilism about truth itself.See Truth in Context: An Essay on Pluralism and Objectivity (MIT Press, 1999). Lynch argues for a coherence theory of truth, which allows for a limited form of relativism.See Truth as Truth as One and Many (Oxford: [Oxford University Press], 2009) and Lynch, M., Capps, D. & Massey, D. "A Coherent Moral Relativism" (2009) Synthese 166, pp. 413–430
His work on the value of truth has also attracted attention, including critical reactions from philosophers ranging from Marian David"On Truth is Good'" Philosophical Books, 2005 to Richard Rorty."True to Life: Why Truth Matters by Michael Lynch. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. LXXI, no. 1 (July 2005), pp. 231-239.
Lynch's primary work is as one of the foremost developers of the pluralist theory of truth. He argues that truth is a functional concept, i.e. a concept which is defined in terms of platitudes characterizing its theoretical role in our inquiry, following functionalism in the philosophy of mind (see functionalism (philosophy of mind). Lynch pairs his functionalism about truth with a multiple realizability thesis, arguing that the truth role can be realized by different properties in different domains of discourse. For instance, truths about empirical science might realize truth's function by corresponding to reality while truths about morality might do so by cohering with a larger set of propositions.See Truth as One and Many (Oxford: [Oxford University Press], 2009)
Lynch has also worked on epistemology, especially epistemological issues related to big data and democracy. Lynch argues for the importance of intellectual humility in democracy.
Writing Lynch is the author of Truth in Context (MIT Press, 1998), True to Life (MIT Press, 2004), Truth as One and Many (OUP, 2009), In Praise of Reason (MIT, 2012), The Internet of Us: Knowing More and Understanding Less in the Age of Big Data (Liveright Publishing, 2016), and Know-It-All-Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture (Liveright Publishing, 2019), as well as many professional philosophical articles.Truth in Context at the MIT PressTrue to Life at the MIT PressTruth as One and Many at Oxford University PressIn Praise of Reason for the MIT Press He was editor of the volume The Nature of Truth: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives (Bradford Books, 2001), co-editor with Professor Heather Battaly of the volume Perspectives on the Philosophy of William P. Alston (Rowman & Littlefield, 2005), as well as co-editor with Professor Patrick Greenough of the volume Truth and Realism (OUP, 2006).The Nature of Truth: Classic and Contemporary Perspectives for Bradford BooksPerspectives on the Philosophy of William P. Alston for Rowman & LittlefieldTruth and Realism for Oxford University Press
Lynch won the Orwell Award in 2019 for his book Know-It-All Society: Truth and Arrogance in Political Culture.
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