Lecture One: What is Science and Why Should We Care? Science, Scepticism and Free Speech series

SCIENCE, SCEPTICISM and FREE SPEECH 

The Free Speech Union is delighted to host a series of lectures and discussions in partnership with  Sense About Science, an independent charity that promotes the public interest in sound science and evidence. 

Critical thinking, open inquiry and the freedom to question have been fundamental to the development of the scientific method and the expansion of knowledge. The ideal of objectivity and the goal of truth require the discipline to abstract itself from individuals, from interests and from sentiment, all of which may explain why science is always subject to pressures on its integrity. 

SCIENCE, SCEPTICISM and FREE SPEECH is a unique series of three events – two lectures from eminent scientists and a final session bringing together public figures concerned with the relationship between science, the public and democratic decision-making. Each session will include plenty of time for audience Q and A. 

You are welcome to attend the entire series or individual events. It will also be possible to join online. 

In-person tickets for each event are £10 for FSU Members, £16 for members of the public, £12 for under-25s.  

Tickets include a glass of wine on arrival. 

Zoom option: FSU Members can join free of charge, others pay £5 per event. 

LECTURE ONE

What is Science and Why Should We Care? 

Wednesday 27th March, 7.30pm

In-person TICKETS

Public online tickets (FSU Members should register using links provided in FSU emails).

With Professor Alan Sokal, Professor of Mathematics, University College London and Professor Emeritus of Physics, New York University. 

Professor Sokal will draw out the unique contribution of the scientific method to human progress and address contemporary trends which threaten to undermine it, in particular, politicisation and censorship.  

About our speaker 

Famous for his 1996 hoax, Professor Alan Sokal is one of the most powerful voices in the continuing debate about the status of evidence-based knowledge. He is co-author (with Jean Bricmont) of Intellectual Impostures: Postmodernist Philosophers’ Abuse of Science, and author of Beyond the Hoax: Science, Philosophy and Culture.