Relevence of 'Truth Matters' to our needs

What are we doing in this Senior Seminar? Epistemology, or metaphysics or...what?

In Lynch's preface he writes "This book is about why truth matters in our personal and political lives. The last hundred years have seen a considerable amount of writing on truth by philosophers, but much of it has been preoccupied with formal questions of definition and paradox," (pg xi; italics added for emphasis).
Are we not 'preoccupied' with formal questions of definitions and paradoxes concerning truth in this class?
I was told, in email exchanges, that I was confusing metaphysical questions of truth's connection with reality, while we are concerned with epistemological questions of...whatever, not that apparently. Also, I infer from page 38, "But it may also indicate that Foucault just isn't worried about metaphysical questions of the nature of truth..." that Lynch is concerned with metaphysics and the nature of truth. Are we concerned with metaphysics, or epistemology, or both?

"While this work is of considerable importance, it can leave the average person feeling rather nonplussed; it rarely addresses the concerns that cause us to worry about truth in the first place. One of the aims of this book is to correct that," (pg xi).

So, I gather from this that Lynch is concerned with that which causes the average person to worry about truth in the first place. It would seem then, Lynch's book assumes that the average person is worrying about truth, and therefore is already in agreement with Lynch's proposition that Truth Matters (otherwise they wouldn't be worrying about it, ay?)
So, it appears to me that this book functions as a self-help for those who are drowning in "simple minded, cynical, false, unhappy, sweet lies," (titles of various chapters and sections of Lynch's book).
Very scholarly, indeed.
Please note the sarcasm, which I assume is valid argument, since Lynch's book is riddled with ad hominems and the like.
I mean this in jest, and will try to reserve judgment until the end of his little novel, but I would like to know what relevance this has to our discussion? What are we to get out of Lynch's book except for a good laugh at his expense, or mine considering I bought the book. Oh, dear god, he got me! I bought the book so truth must matter to me, damn you Lynch!
Oh, yeah and what is our discussion focus, exactly?