Max Schmidheiny Lecture with Prof. Dr Peter Sloterdijk - 42nd St. Gallen Symposium

Keynote Address

Topic Leader:
Prof. Dr Christoph Frei (CH)
Academic Co-Director of International Affairs Programme, University St. Gallen

Speaker:
Prof. Dr Peter Sloterdijk (DE)
Director & Professor for Philosophy and Aesthetics, Karlsruhe University of Arts & Design

The Max Schmidheiny Lecture by Prof. Peter Sloterdijk on Friday evening has been made possible by the Max Schmidheiny Foundation, which in so doing is furthering a long tradition of distinguished global leaders and public intellectuals addressing the St. Gallen Symposium on fundamental issues of freedom and responsibility. Following the inaugural Max Schmidheiny Lecture by Prof. Niall Ferguson on the occasion of the Symposium's 40th anniversary in 2010 and the address by Ayaan Hirsi Ali in 2011, this year's lecture by Prof. Peter Sloterdijk is continuing the series of critical reflections on the foundations and the prospects of free societies. In particular, the lectures are meant as a prominent platform for dialogue between academia and business on the future of a liberal order in a time when its classical premises are increasingly called into question and its achievements are all too easily taken for granted.

The Max Schmidheiny Foundation at the University of St. Gallen is committed to the promotion of a free economic and social order. Each year between 1979 and 2003 it awarded its internationally renowned Freedom Prize at the St. Gallen Symposium and thus stimulated debate on the role of individual liberty and responsibility for economic and social prosperity. Prize winners include Kofi Annan, The Economist, Nicolas G. Hayek, Jeanne Hersch, Médecins sans frontières, Mario Vargas Llosa, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Hernando de Soto and Muhammad Yunus. The foundation was established in 1978 by the distinguished Swiss industrialist Max Schmidheiny (1908--1991), who was closely associated with the St. Gallen Symposium as one of its first benefactors -- a tradition that has been kept alive ever since by the Max Schmidheiny Foundation and the Schmidheiny family.