HaD con filosofía [11/2/10]

[Nota: mensaje remitido por María Luz Pintos, de la Facultad de Filosofia de la Universida de Santiago de Compostela]

Dear Colleagues,

In my native country, Hungary, a politically motivated campaign has been initiated against a «liberal circle» of philosophers. At the same time, the social respect of philosophy as a branch of the humanities has been questioned. It belongs to the background of these events that, in Hungary, during the last months several measures have been taken that lead up to dismantling some crucial democratic institutions.

Seriously concerned by these circumstances, I wrote an open letter to the presidents of some philosophical societies in Germany about the actual campaign against philosophers in Hungary. In this letter, I tried to describe the situation as clearly as I could. On January 25, 2011, in the name of the German Society of Philosophy, Julian Nida-Rümelin and Jürgen Habermas published a statement on this campaign in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. I am sending now my open letter also to colleagues in other countries in order to make them aware of the events in Hungary.

Please read my open letter in the German original or in English or French translation. It would be of great significance for Hungarian philosophers and the philosophy in Hungary, if philosophical societies in South America could protest against the actual campaign by making a statement in one of the newspapers or writing a letter to the Hungarian Embassy in their own country. Individuals may protest also by signing the following petition:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/logosz/.

With best regards,

Laszlo Tengelyi
Professor of Philosophy
Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Germany