Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters

A clear-eyed look at thinking straight in a world crowded with noise, bias, and misinformation. "Fake news." "Alternative facts." "Post-truth." Misinformation is everywhere, sparking public confusion and polarization.In Truth, best-selling author Michael Shermer cuts through the noise to argue that not only does truth still matter-but also that it's essential to our individual and collective flourishing.This sharp-sighted and accessible book provides a framework for thinking more clearly in an age clouded by doubt and distortion. Shermer, the author of Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, explores why truth deserves our attention, how falsehoods take hold in the public's imagination, and how we can resist manipulation through reason, evidence, and open inquiry.This book introduces powerful tools for evaluating claims, including the concepts of causality, correlation, and Bayesian reasoning.Beyond these abstract ideas, Shermer also examines how we determine truth in spec