28 January 2010
OPEN LETTER
To: Professor József Pálinkás, President, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
From: Undersigned External and Honorary Members, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
Dear Professor Pálinkás,
It is impossible for scholars and scientists living in the rest of the world to be unaware of
the very worrisome developments taking place in Hungary today. There is dismay about
the curbs on press freedoms, but the latest developments have struck home in the
Academy.
Every funded scholar and scientist in the world knows that research grants are provided
to support the conduct of research and the communication of its results through
conferences, student support and publications.
We also know that even in the wealthiest nations, research is lamentably underfunded,
especially in today's difficult financial times.
We all know, too, that every funded researcher in the world is vulnerable to superficial
and unsupported charges -- by laymen who do not understand or perhaps do not even
believe in scholarly and scientific research -- to the effect that public money is being
wasted on research that is not worth conducting and not worth disseminating.
This is why research funding is accorded on the basis of peer review, by qualified
scholars and scientists, and not on the basis of opinion polls, let alone allegations by
every skeptic, cynic, or worse.
Most important of all, whenever a baseless attack on publicly funded research happens to
appear in the media -- assuming that the attack is not so vicious or personal as to be
libelous or defamatory -- it is ignored and tolerated as one of the inevitable, if not always
admirable, manifestations of freedom of the press and freedom of opinion.
In particular, the worldwide scientific and scholarly community knows well that the
occasional public venting, especially in hard economic times, of an individual's animus
against research spending in general, or against a particular line of research that the critic
happens to dislike, is to be expected in a Gaussian distribution of opinion, freely
expressible in public.
If necessary (though it is rarely necessary), supporters of research, better informed about
its conduct and purpose, including the research community itself, are free to rally in the
defense of research and researchers when they fall under the shadow of disinformation.
But in a nation where it is the freedom of the press and freedom of opinion that are
themselves falling under a shadow, and where familiar generic criticisms, so general (and
superficial, and ludicrous) that they could literally have been made about every single
funded researcher on the planet today -- unmerited funding, misspent on conducting and
communicating unworthy research -- are coupled with far more sinister and borderline-
libelous allegations -- pocketing the research money instead of using it for its intended
purpose -- the first thing the international scholarly community would expect by way of a
response is a rallying of the national scholarly community in defense of the research and
researchers thus attacked.
Instead, what we hear is that in Hungary legal action is being contemplated against the
researchers that are under attack.
We write to ask that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences take a prompt, prominent and
unequivocal public position in support of the research and researchers thus attacked, and
against such empty, ad hominem attacks, to which every scholar and scientist in the
world is vulnerable, if they are allowed to metastasize unchallenged.
It is noteworthy, in particular, that it is philosophical research -- mental work for which it
is not laboratory results but conferences, student support and writings themselves that are
the product that the research is funded to produce – that is particularly vulnerable to
diffuse generic attacks on the worth of the research and the integrity of the researchers.
Hence research in Philosophy and History -- a formal division of the Hungarian Academy
of Sciences -- is in especial need of the Academy's explicit support.
Nor is it irrelevant that philosophers -- like journalists -- are often thorns in the sides of
governments, on account of their critical thinking -- critical thinking of which Hungary
today seems to stand in greater need than ever in recent times.
A national Academy of Sciences is the first, natural defender of the exercise of critical
thinking in research. As external members and honorary members of the Hungarian
Academy of Sciences we confidently but urgently await the prompt, prominent and
unequivocal statement of the Academy's public position in support of the research and
researchers in question.
It is the principle of assessment through informed peer review -- as opposed to public
trial by sinister, uninformed and unsupported allegations -- that is at stake here, and the
stakes are especially high for science and scholarship.
With collegial salutations,
[list of co-signatories on next page being updated daily]
Alföldy, Géza, U Heidelberg, EM Kahneman, Daniel, Princeton U, HM
Balaban, Alexandru ,Texas A&M U, HM Karady, Victor, CEU, EM
Boskovits, Miklós, U Florence, EM Kazmierkowski, M, Warsaw Tech U, HM
Bruner, Jerome, NYU, HM Kende, Péter, BFTDK, EM
Cocking, Edward, U Nottingham, HM Lax, Peter, NYU Courant Instiute, HM
Dallos, Peter, Northwestern U, HM Lee, Y-T, Pres, Academia Sinica, HM
Deak, Istvan, Columbia U, EM Lempert, Laszlo, Purdue U, EM
Demchenko, A, Nat Ac Sci, Ukraine, HM Maier, Giulio, Technical U Milan, HM
Dennett, Daniel C., Tufts University, HM Meszaros, Istvan, U Sussex, EM
Diehl, Volker, U Cologne, HM Mroz, Zenon, Polish Acad of Sciences, HM
Dressler, Wolfgang, U Vienna, HM Muller, Miklos, Rockefeller U, EM
Evans, Robert, University of Oxford, HM Márkus, György, U Sydney, EM
Flores, Ricardo, U Politea, Valencia, HM Pauncz, Ruben (Rezso), Technion, EM
Gelenbe, Erol, Imperial College, HM Pavláth, Atilla, USDA, EM
Gertler, Janos J., George Mason U, EM Pecht, Israel, Weizmann Institute, HM
Hartkamp, Arthur, Radboud U, HM Petsko , Gregory A., Brandeis U, HM
Hajdu, Janos, U Cologne, EM Polanyi, John, U Toronto, HM
Harnad, Stevan, UQàM, EM Polonyi, Janos, U Strasbourg, EM
Hofstede, Geert, U Maastricht, HM Pretsch, Ernö, ETH Zuerich, EM
Hopwood, David, J Innes Ctr, HM Szent-Gyorgyi, Andrew, Brandeis U, HM
Hortobagyi, Gabriel N., Texas U, EM Thorgeirsson , Snorri S. NIH, HM
Horvath, John, U Maryland, EM Thurau, Klaus, U Munich, HM
Husar, Rudolf, Washington U, EM Tomasello, Michael, MPI Leipzig, HM
Jovin, Thomas, M-PI, Goettingen, HM Ullmann, Agnes, Institut Pasteur, EM
Kaczorek, Tadeusz, Warsaw U Tech, HM Wilke, F. Ludwig, Tech U Berlin, HM
Kahane, J-P, U Paris-Sud Orsay, HM Zieme, Peter, Berlin Acad of Sciences, HM
[list of co-signatories being updated daily]
XII. Fej., 70/G. §
(1) A Magyar Köztársaság tiszteletben tartja és támogatja a tudományos és művészeti
élet szabadságát, a tanszabadságot és a tanítás szabadságát.
(2) Tudományos igazságok kérdésében dönteni, kutatások tudományos értékét
megállapítani kizárólag a tudomány művelői jogosultak.)
(1) The Republic of Hungary honours and supports the freedom of science/scholarship,
arts, ... etc.
(2) The sole parties entitled to decide questions of scientific/scholarly validity and to
evaluate scientific/scholarly research are the scientific/scholarly researchers themselves.
Links to descriptions of the ongoing events in question:
http://bit.ly/HungaryAcademy-1
http://bit.ly/HungaryAcademy-2-en-francais
http://bit.ly/HungaryAcademy-3
http://bit.ly/HungarianAcademy-4
http://bit.ly/HungaryAcademy-5-auf-deutsch
http://bit.ly/VajdaVideo-in-hungarian
http://bit.ly/HellerVideo-in-English
