Keynote: How to Speak Freely | TEST eCornellTEST eCornell

Event Overview

What does it take to speak candidly when honesty carries real consequences, and how should leaders respond when people tell them something they don’t want to hear? In his new book “How to Speak Freely,” Cornell professor and classicist Michael Fontaine explores two sharply contrasting ancient perspectives.

The first, “Plato’s Apology,” presents Socrates defending his duty to question authority, think independently, and speak according to conscience, even at the cost of his life. The second, Lucian’s comic dialogue “The Gods in Council,” shows what happens when a leader promises open discussion and an offensive subordinate takes him at his word.

Cornell President Michael Kotlikoff moderates this interactive discussion in which he and Professor Fontaine examine how these important works illuminate the value, risks, and practical challenges of encouraging candid speech within organizations and institutions.

This event is co-sponsored by Cornell University’s Program on Freedom and Free Societies.

What You'll Learn

Why Socrates regarded candid questioning as a duty rather than merely a right
How leaders can encourage dissent without surrendering authority or organizational cohesion
Why commitments to open discussion are tested by unwelcome messages and difficult messengers
How Lucian’s satire exposes the gap between institutional values and institutional behavior
Practical ways to foster honest disagreement and respond constructively when it occurs

Speakers

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Michael Kotlikoff

Provost

Cornell University

Provost, Cornell University

Michael I. Kotlikoff, Professor of Molecular Physiology, became the 16th Provost of Cornell on August 1, 2015. As the university’s Chief Academic Officer, Chief Budgeting Officer, and First Deputy Officer to the President, Dr. Kotlikoff works to enhance the university’s excellence in teaching, scholarship, and outreach. His signature initiative, Radical Collaboration, recruits faculty and supports infrastructure in seven key multidisciplinary areas: nanoscale science and microsystems engineering; genome biology; data science; sustainability; digital agriculture; infection biology; and the critical inquiry into values, imagination, and culture (CIVIC). Dr. Kotlikoff was previously the Austin O. Hooey Dean of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell, where he enhanced programs in education, animal healthcare, and research, and launched an $87 million capital project to upgrade infrastructure and teaching facilities, thus enabling an increase in the pre-clinical class size. His research laboratory, continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for over 30 years, is internationally recognized in the area of cardiovascular biology and heart repair.

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Michael Fontaine

Professor of Classics

Cornell University College of Arts and Sciences

Professor of Classics, Cornell College of Arts & Sciences

Mike Fontaine is Professor of Classics at Cornell University. Professor Fontaine has published many books on jokes, humor, and comedy in ancient Greece and Rome. His latest is titled “How to Tell a Joke: An Ancient Guide to the Art of Humor.” The timeless joke-telling strategies and techniques he’s culled from the ancient world have served him well in his years as Cornell’s acting Dean of Faculty, Associate Dean of Faculty, and Associate Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education.

Professor Fontaine teaches a range of courses about the ancient world, including Greek Mythology, Introduction to Ancient Rome, and Wine Culture. He lives in Ithaca with his wife and children and travels frequently.

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