Professor Matei Candea - Reason, Carnival and Honour

Saturday 27 June
11.30am-12.30pm
12 (10)
Professor Matei Candea Reason, Carnival and HonourWhat does free speech really mean? How does our understanding of it differ around the world? Why does it divide us and how can we find common ground?
Arguments about free speech are not just about abstract principles: they question what it means to be a good person, to have empathy and courage. They involve fears for the future and longings for the past and they demand that you pick a side.
Reason, Carnival and Honour outlines three visions of free speech Reason, or civil rational debate; Carnival, or the right to be outrageous; and Honour, the duty to stand by ones word.
Building on years of research and an exploration of anthropological literature from around the globe from tales of French cartoonists to Egyptian Bedouin women, Finnish talk-show hosts to Tibetan Buddhist monks Reason, Carnival and Honour reveals a richer landscape of differences, to help us find new alliances and even answers to the question of what it is were really arguing about.
In conversation with Paolo Heywood