Held on Tuesday, 26 November 2024 at 6:30pm

Venue: Apothecaries' Hall, Black Friar's Lane, London EC4V 6EJ

Liberty versus Lies: The Future of 21st Century Society

To be given by Richard Horton

Richard Charles Horton OBE FRCPCH FMedSci is editor-in-chief of The Lancet, a United Kingdom-based medical journal. He is an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, University College London, and the University of Oslo.

The John Locke Lecture, established in 1978, honours the Faculty's interest in the philosophy of medicine and pays tribute to the 17th-century physician and philosopher, John Locke.

Renowned for his liberal, anti-authoritarian state theory, empirical knowledge theory, advocacy for religious toleration, and theory of personal identity, Locke famously challenged the divine right of kings. He asserted that it lacks scriptural or rational support and rejected the notion that might justifies authority.

By positing a state of nature without government, police, or private property, Locke argued that humans can recognize natural laws through rational deduction.