Brian O'Connor, MRIA (born 1965) is an Irish

social philosopher Social philosophy examines questions about the foundations of social institutions, social behavior, and interpretations of society in terms of ethical values rather than empirical relations. Social philosophers emphasize understanding the social c ...

active in the tradition of continental European intellectual thought. O'Connor is a professor of philosophy at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...

and director of the school of philosophy. He has written extensively on

German Idealism German idealism was a philosophical movement that emerged in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It developed out of the work of Immanuel Kant in the 1780s and 1790s, and was closely linked both with Romanticism and the revolutionary ...

and

Critical Theory A critical theory is any approach to social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to reveal, critique and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from soci ...

, and is an expert on the philosopher,

Adorno Theodor W. Adorno ( , ; born Theodor Ludwig Wiesengrund; 11 September 1903 – 6 August 1969) was a German philosopher, sociologist, psychologist, musicologist, and composer. He was a leading member of the Frankfurt School of critica ...

. O’Connor has also written on the subject of idleness in his 2018 book of the same name, which provided a comparative analysis of the philosophy of idleness. He was awarded a higher doctorate by the National University of Ireland in 2021. In May 2021, he was made a member of the

Royal Irish Academy The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ga, Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned socie ...

Books

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References

1965 births Living people Irish philosophers Alumni of University College Dublin Academics of University College Dublin 21st-century Irish philosophers Critical theorists Members of the Royal Irish Academy National University of Ireland {{Improve categories, date=March 2021