Ronald Dworkin talks truth in Heffer Lecture tonight

Prof Dworkin, who has been an outspoken critic of the Bush government's response to 11 September 2001 and its treatment of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, will be speaking on the topic of Truth, Morality and Interpretation.

The Heffer Lectures are an annual event, jointly organised by the University of Cambridge's Faculty of Philosophy and Heffers book sellers.

Admission is free of charge and members of the general public are welcome. Advance tickets are not required.

Prof Dworkin is one of the world's most renowned philosophers and jurists and does not tend to pull his punches when discussing the ethics of thorny political and legislative matters.

His November 2003 article for the New York Review of Books, entitled 'Terror & the Attack on Civil Liberties', was a full-pronged attack on the Bush government's response to 11 September 2001 and, in particular, on what he called its "impermissible contempt" for the human rights of the Guantanamo Bay detainees. He has also written about the ethics of assisted suicide, affirmative action at US universities and law and freedom.

His Heffer Lecture tonight will undoubtedly be a lively and thought-provoking affair. Previous speakers at the event, which began in 1989, include Bernard Williams, Roger Scruton, Jerry Fodor, Onora O'Neill and Amartya Sen.

The University's Faculty of Philosophy has a long and proud history. Among its former academic staff can be found such illustrious figures as Bertrand Russell, Wittgenstein and G E Moore, while the famous thinker Francis Bacon studied at Trinity College, Cambridge from 1573 to 1575.

Professor Ronald Dworkin studied at Harvard University and the University of Oxford. He is currently Professor of Philosophy and Frank Henry Sommer Professor of Law at New York University and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College London.

Tonight's Heffer Lecture is at 5pm in Lady Mitchell Hall, Sidgwick Avenue, Cambridge.