Truth in Science, the Humanities and Religion

Balzan Symposium 2008

by the Academies of the two countries – to the Italian-Swiss University of Lugano for the two-day-Symposium. The question of the meaning of “truth” is central to many areas of contemporary debate, whether between those subscribing to a post-Enlightenment view of the world and those who seek fundamental truth in religious texts, or between those maintaining that there are absolute truths and those believing facts to be social constructs. For some, the ultimate truth is revealed through religious faith and t- tual authority. Can this view be reconciled with an evidence-based, materialist, post-Enlightenment perspective of the truth as embraced by the natural sciences? If religion holds the key to the truth, which religion and which truths? During the five thematic sessions of the symposium, all attended by the same audience and by all the speakers and panel members, these and many other qu- tions, but in particular the one about the meaning of truth, were examined and debated. The whole range of perspectives represented on the panels and in the au- ence came to the fore. After the keynote lecture by Professor Simon Blackburn, the five sessions covered the following disciplines: philosophy, mathematics, physics, cosmology, the biological sciences including biodiversity and sustainability, h- tory, the social sciences, theology and religion. This volume contains the speakers’ lectures, the corresponding reactions of the invited panel members as well as the panel and general discussions of the two-d- symposium.