Reflections on the Yoorrook Walk for Truth by a philosopher who 'works on truth' | Dr. Catherine Legg

Join us for the second instalment of our Summer Soirée series as Dr Catherine Legg shares 'Reflections on the Yoorrook Walk for Truth by a philosopher who "works on truth"'.

Enjoy light refreshments from 5.30pm, followed by the talk from 6.00–7.00pm.

Bookings close 8 January

For any queries regarding the event, please contact Dr Britta Jensen - bjensen@newington.nsw.edu.au.

Dr Catherine Legg

Dr. Catherine Legg teaches philosophy at Deakin University in Melbourne. Her main research interests lie in the philosophies of mind, language, and logic, where she works to bring the ideas of pragmatist Charles Peirce into mainstream debates; she also has research profiles in AI and education. She is current editor of the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy's “Pragmatism” entry. In early 2025, she was interviewed on the Radio National Philosopher's Zone program, for an episode  which presented themes from her recent paper in the Journal of Philosophy in Schools: "Getting to Post-Post-Truth"

Reflections on the Yoorrook Walk for Truth by a philosopher who works on truth

A pragmatist philosophical orientation suggests that we begin an inquiry into truth by asking: What is the purpose of reflecting philosophically on truth? What problems are we trying to solve? If we were to solve them, what would it look like on the other side?

On 18 June 2025, Dr Catherine Legg participated in the final leg of the Yoorrook Walk for Truth. This event's poignant public excavation of a set of truths which somehow survived the strenuous efforts of many Victorians to bury them across 150 years led her to reflect on the gravity, and unavoidability, of truth.

She wants to explore the idea that the weight of this event offers a rebuke to what we in Western philosophy have lately made of our own conceptual heritage as regards truth, on both the 'realist' and 'antirealist' sides of what we imagine to be our most fundamental debate over this concept.