The Shadow of Discovery: On facts, distortion, and the modern work of seeing

In an attempt to achieve a deeper understanding of the process of discovery ---both in the sense of self-discovery and exploration of the natural world--- this paper draws on the author’s personal history to try to answer two fundamental questions: (1) what role does “evil”—not as melodrama but as distortion, coercion, and the corrosion of trust—play in the process by which we discover the world and ourselves? and (2) what does it take to preserve truth-seeking in a world that continually rewards distortion?