Futures Salon Series - The Truth and the Future

Can we know the future? If so, what does it mean for a claim about the future to be true?

This salon examines how philosophy, forecasting, and public policy approach questions of uncertainty, prediction, and truth. The discussion explores the role of evidence, probability, and scientific reasoning in making credible claims about futures—from everyday forecasts to long-term policy decisions.

Speaker Perspectives:

John Capps argues that dismissing knowledge about the future undermines public trust in science and engineering, both of which rely on making credible claims about future outcomes. Drawing on American pragmatism and theories of truth, he explores how we can responsibly evaluate claims about futures while strengthening democratic decision-making. John Capps is a professor in RIT's Department of Philosophy whose research focuses on American philosophy, theories of truth and knowledge, and democratic institutions.

Eric Hittinger approaches the future through quantitative forecasting and decision analysis. Rather than asking whether a specific prediction is true, he considers whether forecasts appropriately represent uncertainty. Weather forecasts, energy modeling, and probabilistic prediction provide examples of how rigorous uncertainty can produce reliable knowledge about the future. Eric Hittinger is Professor of Public Policy and Director of the School of Public Affairs. His research focuses on techno-economic analysis of energy systems and climate policy.
What is the Futures Salon? Talks, workshops, collaborative experiments, and public discussion, the Futures Salon supports intellectual exchange across disciplines while cultivating new ways of understanding and intervening in the worlds that are possible, probable, and preferable.

Please submit interpreting requests to myAccess.rit.edu.

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