It is often said that toleration and solidarity are essential democratic virtues. But toleration is also criticized for being an attitude that puts minorities down, and some forms of solidarity can be nationalistic and xenophobic. So what is the basis for and what are the forms of toleration and solidarity conducive to democracy? And is democracy an independent normative ideal? These questions give us reasons to reconsider the normative assumptions that influence our social and political life.

Rainer Forst is Professor of Political Theory and Philosophy and Director of the Research Center “Normative Orders” at Goethe University in Frankfurt. His research focuses on questions of justice, democracy, and toleration as well as critical theory and practical reason; his work is published by Suhrkamp. In 2012 he was awarded the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation, the highest award for a German scholar. He is a Member of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He has held numerous visiting professorships and fellowships in the U.S., including at the New School for Social Research, Dartmouth College, Rice University, the University of Michigan, and NYU. In 2021, he was a Fellow at the Thomas Mann House in Los Angeles. He is also a Visiting Research Professor at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center.

With a musical performance by Kristina Georgieva (violin).

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