Michael Esfeld is full professor of the philosophy of science at the University of Lausanne, a fellow of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (the German National Academy of Sciences), and a trustee of the Liberal Institute of Switzerland.
He has recently published two significant pieces with the Brownstone Institute in the USA: Fiat Money and the Covid Regime: Actually Existing Postmodernism and The Illusion of Republicanism.
In this interview, he discusses with Alex Thomson how the term "the rule of law" has been twisted to mean its opposite and in fact refers to the rule of natural law above the legislation of tyrants, and how liberalism was inverted in the nineteenth century, particularly in Britain and France, into utilitarianism and the rhetoric of "the common good", "democracy" and "the universal will" (la volonté générale).
Professor Esfeld decries the past century's governmental monopolisation of public life (education, healthcare, media, science), underpinned by the "state violence" of forced funding of public "services", as hubris leading to corruption. The warning was already being sounded by Sir Karl Popper during the Second World War. The proper function of the executive branch of government, Esfeld states, is not creating but merely ensuring the rule of law: keeping the peace at home and defending the realm externally.
Esfeld also describes how academia, the press and the publishing world have sought to cancel him for doing his job as a philosopher. He is one of at least two academics who have been banned from the German-speaking world's premier publishing event, the Frankfurt Book Fair, for questioning what the governments of Central Europe were doing in the Covid era. He found himself smeared by fellow members of his own academy as a Nestbeschmutzer, "fouling the nest of science". This is particularly ironic for Esfeld, as he grew up within sight of the Berlin Wall, as he recounts in the interview.
Prof. Michael Esfeld's book Land ohne Mut ("A Country With No Courage") is available in German and forthcoming in English. The author has been interviewed in German by the publisher. He has been interviewed in French about the threatened end of the rule of law in the Covid era.
The case of Judge Christian Dettmar, accused of Rechtsbeugung (perverting the course of justice) for his stance on Covid, which is mentioned in this interview, was covered from 18:44 onwards in the 30 September 2023 episode of UK Column News (see also the show notes below the video upload).
Dying for Good Health (2018), the UK Column conference on the privatisation of the NHS that is referred to in this interview, is here.