Nemzetközi konferenciát rendeztek volna Pécsett Huw Price "Naturalism without mirrors" című könyvéről az MTA Filozófiai Intézete és a pécsi tudományegyetem szervezésében.
Like many others, I was deeply concerned to read on your blog about recent events in Hungary, and especially about what appear to be politically-motivated attacks on philosophers and intellectuals. These events raised an immediate practical issue for me: I had been due to take part in a conference in Pécs in May, one of a series organised over many years by Professor János Boros, of the University of Pécs. This year, the focus of the Pécs meeting was to be my own forthcoming collection, Naturalism Without Mirrors (OUP, 2011).
The practical issue stemmed from the fact that in his role as Director of the Research Institute of Philosophy of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor Boros is widely seen as associated with those who launched the attack on the philosophers. While the facts of the case are difficult to determine – especially at a distance and without knowledge of Hungarian – I was concerned that if the conference were to go ahead under Professor Boros's direction, there would be a real risk that it would be portrayed in the pro-government media within Hungary as lending support to the intellectual respectability of these politically-motivated attacks.
In these circumstances, after extensive discussions with other invitees to the Pécs meeting, and with Hungarian colleagues both inside and outside Hungary, I have decided that the conference should not go ahead. I deeply regret having to take this decision, and I am, of course, very conscious of the inconvenience caused to Professor Boros and his colleagues and students. But the other option seemed to me even worse, given the importance of the issues at stake, and the unpredictable nature of the situation. An alternative meeting will now take place in Zurich, with the kind assistance of Professor Anton Leist; and joint sponsorship by the Centre for the Study of Mind in Nature, Oslo, as well as by my own Centre.
That seems to me the right decision under the circumstances.
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no comment.
