Spring Quarter 2003
STS 121B (History 301Q)
Michael John Gorman and Persi
Diaconis
Seminar, 5 units
Days: Tuesday, Thursday, 2.15-4.05 12.15-2.05
-- NOTE NEW TIME
Place: Wallenberg Hall (Bldg 160),
Room 328
"He who has not a good memory should never take upon himself the trade of lying" Michel de Montaigne
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple” Oscar Wilde
Lying has been described as one of the most fundamental human activities. George Steiner has argued, in After Babel, that deception was at the root of the development of human language. This inter-disciplinary seminar will place deception in historical context, through a series of close case studies, particularly from the history of science, technology and the visual arts. We will consider the history of lying and changing technologies for lie detection. We will examine frauds, fakes and illusions in science, technology and art from the 1600s to the present. We will explore the cultural and legal connotations of fraud and deceit, from Descartes to the Clinton impeachment. We will examine attempts to model deception in game theory and deception in the media.