Onora O'Neill lecture on public reason

A lecture by professor Onora O'Neill on public reason is available as a podcast on the website of University of Oslo:

Making Reason Public:
Necessary Conditions for Dialogue and Discourse
[55 minutes]



The lecture was held on September 2, 2009, at "The Centre for Study of the Mind in Nature", University of Oslo, Norway.

In her lecture, Onora O'Neill contrasts the leading conceptions of public reason of the late 20th century - Rawls and Habermas - with Kant's conception. She argues that Kant's "modal" conception of public reason - based on a distinction between private reasoning (addressing a limited audience) and public reasoning (addressing all citizens) - can give us a better understanding of the difference between quasi-communication and effective communication in modern democracies.

Professor Onora O'Neill is professor of philosophy at the University of Cambridge and a cross bench member of the British House of Lords. She was formerly president of the British Academy.