ABSTRACT / An open society should tolerate a variety of belief systems, religious and secular; and religious tolerance has historically been one of the distinguishing features of liberal societies. But recently hostility to religion, in its various forms, has become prominent in the public debate of some liberal societies, led by intellectuals like Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett. This lecture will criticise the conception of religious belief that lies behind these critiques, and will examine what it means for a secular society to tolerate religion.
BIOGRAPHY / Tim Crane is a Professor of Philosophy at CEU. Before coming to CEU he was Knightbridge Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge, and before that he taught at UCL for twenty years. He founded the Institute of Philosophy in the University of London in 2005, and was its first director. He is the philosophy editor of the Times Literary Supplement (the TLS). Tim Crane is the author of six books on the philosophy of mind —including a study of the problem of non-existence, The Objects of Thought (OUP 2013) and the best-selling introduction to the philosophy of artificial intelligence, The Mechanical Mind (Penguin Books 1995). His most recent book is The Meaning of Belief: Religion from an Atheist’s Point of View, published this month by Harvard University Press.
Reception to follow.
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The talk will be live streamed at https://www.youtube.com/ceuhungary/live.