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Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture 2025 by Peter Godfrey-Smith
2 June, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm
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Join us for the Sir Karl Popper Memorial Lecture which will be delivered by Peter Godfrey-Smith who will speak about tolerance and the freedom of expression.
Topic: Tolerance and freedom of expression
Date: Monday 2 June 2025, 6:30pm-8:00pm
Venue: Old Theatre, Old Building, LSE Campus – and online
About the event
Karl Popper suggested that tolerance in political contexts can be self-defeating. “Unlimited tolerance must lead to the disappearance of tolerance,” he said, because it allows intolerance to flourish and take over. He called this the “paradox of tolerance.” One important kind of tolerance relates to the expression of controversial ideas. Using a framework for understanding tolerance developed with Ben Kerr, Peter Godfrey-Smith will discuss problems raised by toleration of the intolerant, especially around questions of speech and expression. The framework itself doesn’t dictate policies, but combined with other arguments it can provide support for a “classic liberal” treatment of free expression, where some protection is afforded to the expression of unpopular views. The framework eliminates the appearance of tension or “paradox” in some liberal combinations of attitudes.
Meet our speaker and chair
Peter Godfrey-Smith is Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney, and works primarily in the philosophy of biology and the philosophy of mind. His books include Darwinian Populations and Natural Selection, which won the 2010 Lakatos Award, Theory and Reality: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Science, and Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life, which has been published in over twenty languages.
Richard Bradley is Professor of Philosophy in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at LSE and a fellow of the British Academy. His research is concentrated in decision theory, formal epistemology and and the theory of social choice but he also works on conditionals and the nature of chance. Recently he has been working on policy decision making under scientific uncertainty applied to climate change, natural catastrophes and pandemics.