07/08/2026
✍🏻 DI Testimonials – Anthony O'Hear professzor
❝Tapasztalataim szerint az Intézet és munkatársai valóban elkötelezettek a J. S. Mill A szabadságról című művében megfogalmazott elv iránt, miszerint egy számunkra fontos nézet megvédésének legjobb módja, ha a lehető legerősebb ellenérveknek vetjük alá, hogy kiderüljön, kiállja-e azokat; ha pedig nem, akkor akár el is kell vetnünk saját álláspontunkat.❞
📢Új, DI Testimonials névre hallgató sorozatunkban korábbi vendégkutatóinktól osztunk meg értékes gondolatokat, akik rövid visszaemlékezéseikben felidézik, milyen volt intézetünkben dolgozni.
Ma Anthony O'Hear professzor, brit filozófua sorait olvashatjátok, aki 2023-2025 közt senior vendégkutatónk volt 👇
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✍🏻 In our new series, DI Testimonials, we are sharing reflections from our former visiting fellows, who look back on their time at the Danube Institute, and recall what it was like to work here, as well as the moments they remember most fondly.
You can read below the thoughts of Professor Anthony O'Hear OBE, British philosopher, our Senior Visiting Fellow of 2023-2025👇
❝I have made four visits to the Danube Institute as a fellow, the first in 2014 and the others in 2023-2025. During my 2014 visit to the Danube Institute, I spoke on religion and politics (arguing for a separation of the two) in Budapest and on climate policy in Pécs. This later paper was subsequently presented in Spain at the International Academy for the Philosophy of Science in 2015 and published in the journal Axiomathes. During my subsequent tenure of Danube Institute fellowships in 2023-2025, I researched on parental rights in education in Central and Eastern Europe (including Hungary). I received excellent research assistance from the Institute.
This research is currently being published by the Institute. Worth mentioning in this connection is the fact that my stance is somewhat critical of the then Hungarian government’s position on this (and of other countries too). The Institute had no problem with this. Our mutual concern was to examine how well served parental rights were in Hungary, and in the other countries being considered. Nor have I any idea whether my views on religion and politics and climate policy would or would not have found favour with the Hungarian government of the time. Once again, when working for the Institute, I was entirely free to develop my own views, and the Institute was perfectly happy that I should do so in its programmes, as contributions to important debates. I also was the main participant in a prestigious public colloquium on free speech put on by the Danube Institute in both London and Dublin in 2024, at which the Institute’s own commitment to the importance of genuine exchanges of view was made very obvious.
From my experience, within the Institute and its personnel there is a genuine commitment to the honoured principle of J.S. Mill (in On Liberty), that the best way of defending a cherished view is to submit it to the strongest possible objections, to see if it can survive them, and if not, to modify or even to abandon one’s own view. Over and above its public meetings and discussions the Institute runs impressive programmes for young post-graduates to research into socially and politically significant topics, which should do much to further the careers of those involved. I have seen some of the work here, and have been impressed with the level and commitment of the young scholars involved.
In short, from my experience with the Danube Institute, its work is highly valuable, with its serious examination of important topics, with the quality of the speakers it attracts to its meetings, with the range of views expressed at its meetings and with the opportunities it offers to younger scholars. I hope that all will be done to enable it to continue and develop further into the future.❞
