What Is 21st-Century Truth?

Propaganda Has Trapped Us in Plato’s Cave—the Shadows Aren’t Real but the Sun Is Blinding

Zócalo is celebrating its 20th birthday this year! As part of the festivities, we’re publishing reflections and responses that revisit and reimagine some of our most impactful stories and public programs. Historian of American political rhetoric Jennifer Mercieca continues to explore why political discourse is broken in the U.S.—as in her 2018 essay “Preaching Civility Won’t Save American Democracy.”

You’re a prisoner, held in a dark cave. Your hands are tied behind you and you can only look straight ahead at the cave wall. Your captors keep you …

My Modest Proposal for Universal Orphanhood in California

Plato’s Old Idea—Eliminating the Family—Aligns With the Most Cherished Visions of Equity Across the Political Spectrum

If California is ever going to achieve true equity, the state must require parents to give away their children.

Today’s Californians often hold up equity—the idea of achieving a just society …

The Ancient Greeks’ Guide to Rejecting Propaganda and Disinformation | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

The Ancient Greeks’ Guide to Rejecting Propaganda and Disinformation

How Plato and the Sophists Can Help Us Find Shared Truth and Solve Our Political Problems

Is there a cure for disinformation, propaganda, and other offenses against the truth?

Twitter’s answer has been to add fact-checks to misleading statements, a move that has led to a showdown …

How an Ancient Greek Notion of Goodness Can Help Us Live Right in the Modern Age

As the Anglo-Irish Writer Iris Murdoch Learned From Plato, by Overcoming Our Egotistical Desires We Can Find a Higher Truth 

By swotting the classics of Western morality, can one learn to be good? Philosophy is having a pop culture moment thanks to The Good Place, a sitcom about people in …