Prohibitions and commandments lie at the heart of religious and ethical ways of life; they stabilise social orders, protect against violence and limit the abuse of power. Rights, including fundamental rights, are safeguarded by prohibitions. At the same time, prohibitions themselves are an expression of political, economic and social power relations. Prohibiting others, or even oneself, from doing something means restricting scope for action and self-expression. The fact that this repressive function of prohibitions and taboos has an inherent culture-forming dimension is the source of the unease that Sigmund Freud attributed to culture as early as the beginning of the 20th century. The productive power of prohibitions can also be traced etymologically: as far back as Old Low German, the verb ‘to prohibit’ [mnd. vorbēden] was closely related to the command, in the sense of an emphatic directive for action.
During the summer term, the Mosse Lectures aim to shed light on the ambivalence of prohibitions and examine their relevance to contemporary social debates. The starting point is the observation that prohibitions have recently become a topic of renewed discussion. Whilst criticism of prohibitions seems ubiquitous in many areas of society, they are experiencing a renaissance in contexts where they become instruments of crisis management – for instance, in debates on climate policy, social media or digital violence.
To kick off the Mosse Lectures “Thou shalt, thou shalt not” on 4 June 2026, literary scholar Adrian Daub will explore the sense of speech bans and unspeakables that is firmly anchored in political discourse.
At a glance
- Mosse Lectures: Thou shalt, thou shalt not. Prohibitions and Commandments between Religion, Law and Politics
- When: from 4 June 2026, 7.15 pm
- Where: Senatssaal, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Unter den Linden 6, 10117 Berlin