Rainer Forst (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt), winner of the 2012 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, works mainly on political theory, pragmatism, tolerance, and political and social justice. He is considered one of the world's most eminent authorities on the subject of toleration. This year's Simon Lectures occur under the general title "The Nature of Normative Concepts: Dependence vs. Independence."