Professor Christian Miller to deliver 25th annual Poteat Lecture

A.C. Reid Professor of Philosophy Christian Miller will deliver the 25th annual Hubert McNeill Poteat Lecture on Thursday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in Pugh Auditorium. Miller’s lecture is titled “Honesty: Preserving our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World.”

The following is an excerpt from a recent Q&A with Miller conducted ahead of his lecture by the Office of the Dean of the College.

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What inspired you to choose honesty as the theme for this year’s lecture, and why do you believe it’s such an important topic to address in today’s world?

The theme of honesty is a natural one for me, as I have been working on the topic for the past 8 years. This has included directing the Honesty Project for five years, which helped to support dozens of scholars in producing new work on the philosophy and psychology of honesty. In recent years, I have become increasingly worried by a number of honesty crises in our society. Examples include the rampant dishonesty surrounding deepfakes, internet infidelity, and student cheating. These crises occur when dishonesty becomes more tempting than it was in the past, and, at the same time, it has become easier to get away with. That is a bad combination; so, in my research, I am trying to call attention to these crises and think through ways of trying to address them.

Read the full Q&A here.