Public Lecture Series
Call for Lectures HS 2026 Transdisciplinary Lecture Series "Truth and Lies"
RVL2026_Wahrheit_und_Luege_CfL (PDF, 45 KB)
Deadline 19 December 2025
Contact: michelle.dreiding@uzh.ch (contact for the lecture series)
Please submit the title of your lecture with your registration. The abstract (1/2 page or 1200 characters with spaces) can be submitted within the next few months.
Dates lectures series: 16.09.26 to 16.12.26 (weekly), Wednesdays, 18:15-19:45, UZH main building
Truth is the leitmotif of all science. Scientific research aims to discover and recognize the truth, which is often hidden and unknown to us. Therefore, those who seek the truth always run the risk of missing their goal, of succumbing to deception and of believing falsehoods to be true and labelling them as truth. Anyone who does this unknowingly is erring, while anyone who does it against their better judgement is lying. Lying is morally reprehensible and outlawed in all societies, cultures and religions – and yet it is a widespread practice. This is why the distinction between truth and lies takes on a new urgency, especially in times when terms such as «fake» and «deepfake» are ubiquitous and «alternative facts» are claimed in many places.
But what is truth? Pilate asked this question when he interrogated Jesus, but he left the praetorium without waiting for his answer. Nietzsche, who formulated the same question, seems to deny in his answer that there is such a thing as truth at all. Rather, he calls it a «moving army of metaphors»; truths are «illusions of which one has forgotten that they are any». For him, the boundaries between truth and lies seem to blur. «The ‹apparent› world, according to Nietzsche, is the only one: the ‹true world› is only an added lie …»
Must any claim to truth therefore be abandoned? Is Pilate’s behaviour in this respect an anticipation of Nietzsche’s scepticism? Or should science, which is committed to truth, perhaps take art as its model and, according to Adorno, «free itself from the lie of being truth»? Should science therefore aim to uncover lies, including and above all the lie of the claim to truth? Hence science would have a primarily critical mission.
Researchers and lecturers from all disciplines are invited to submit a contribution from the perspective of their subject. Accepted are the national languages and English.
The body of Senior Researchers and Teaching Staff organize a public lecture series on alternating topics with topical relevance every fall semester at UZH. The lecture series and the ensuing publication of its papers is organized by a commission made up of senior researchers from different faculties. If you are interested in participating in a planned lecture series, pelase contact Michelle Dreiding or Sabine Hoidn.
Co-presidents
PD Dr. Sabine Hoidn, PhF
Dr. Michelle Dreiding, PhF
Organizing committee Public Lecture Series of Senior Academics:
PD Dr. Beate Beer, PhF
Dr. Jeannette Behringer, WWF
Prof. Dr. Elham Manea, PhF
Prof. Dr. Matthias Neugebauer, ThF
Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Rother, PhF
Dr. Friederike Vinzenz, PhF
Prof. Dr. Marc Winter, PhF
Contact: Michelle Dreiding oder Sabine Hoidn