Lawrence Lessig: "On How People Speak"

Abstract: "We must attend to the technical conditions of democratic understanding: how do the people know, and how might that knowledge be improved. In this talk, Lessig will map the ways in which the epistemologies of democratic understanding have changed, and how we might productively respond to those changes. Against a trend arguing that we should listen less to the people, Lessig describes how we could instead listen better." This lecture was held at the 2018 Holberg Symposium: "Democracy and Truth" in honour of Holberg Laureate Cass Sunstein. Lawrence Lessig is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Cited by The New Yorker as “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the Internet era,” Lessig has focused much of his career on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright. His current work addresses “institutional corruption”—relationships which, while legal, weaken public trust in an institution—especially as that affects democracy.