János Kis (born 17 September 1943) is a Hungarian

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

and

political scientist Political science is the science, scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of politics, political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated c ...

, who served as the inaugural leader of the liberal

Alliance of Free Democrats The Alliance of Free Democrats – Hungarian Liberal Party ( hu, Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége – a Magyar Liberális Párt, SZDSZ) was a liberal political party in Hungary. The SZDSZ was a member of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ...

(SZDSZ) from 1990 to 1991. He is considered to be the first Leader Hungarian parliamentary opposition.

Biography

Kis was born in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hungary. His father was killed in

the Holocaust The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...

. He graduated with a degree in

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

from the

Eötvös Loránd University Eötvös Loránd University ( hu, Eötvös Loránd Tudományegyetem, ELTE) is a Hungarian public research university based in Budapest. Founded in 1635, ELTE is one of the largest and most prestigious public higher education institutions in Hung ...

in 1967. Kis was inspired by the ideas of

György Lukács György Lukács (born György Bernát Löwinger; hu, szegedi Lukács György Bernát; german: Georg Bernard Baron Lukács von Szegedin; 13 April 1885 – 4 June 1971) was a Hungarian Marxist philosopher, literary historian, critic, and ae ...

and

György Márkus György Márkus (13 April 1934 – 5 October 2016) was a Hungarian philosopher, belonging to the small circle of critical theorists closely associated with György Lukács and usually referred to as the Budapest School. Biography Márkus w ...

, and became marxist in the 1960s. He joined the

Hungarian Communist Party The Hungarian Communist Party ( hu, Magyar Kommunista Párt, abbr. MKP), known earlier as the Party of Communists in Hungary ( hu, Kommunisták Magyarországi Pártja, abbr. KMP), was a communist party in Hungary that existed during the interwar ...

(MSZMP) too. In 1973 he was dismissed as a researcher at the Institute of Philosophy at the

Hungarian Academy of Sciences The Hungarian Academy of Sciences ( hu, Magyar Tudományos Akadémia, MTA) is the most important and prestigious learned society of Hungary. Its seat is at the bank of the Danube in Budapest, between Széchenyi rakpart and Akadémia utca. Its ma ...

after co-authoring a book criticizing

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

socialism from leftist point of view. He was excluded from the MSZMP as well. On radical leftist and human-rights-liberal basis, he strongly opposed the communist regime in Hungary, he helped to create the first opposition journal '' Beszélő'' which was first issued in December 1981. He was the Editor-in-Chief of this underground journal until the democratization of the country in 1989. He was also member of the democratic opposition party

(SzDSz). From 1988 to 1989 he was visiting professor at the

New School for Social Research The New School for Social Research (NSSR) is a graduate-level educational institution that is one of the divisions of The New School in New York City, United States. The university was founded in 1919 as a home for progressive era thinkers. NSSR ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. After the fall of communism in 1989–1990, the SzDSz entered the democratic Parliament and Kis was elected as the party leader on 23 February 1990. He remained in this office until 23 November 1991, when he left active politics and returned to an academic career. However, he remained in the SzDSz. He welcomed the coalition of the SzDSz with the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) In 1992, he became a professor at the

Central European University Central European University (CEU) is a private research university accredited in Austria, Hungary, and the United States, with campuses in Vienna and Budapest. The university is known for its highly intensive programs in the social sciences and ...

. Since 1996, he has also been a visiting professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

. He left the SzDSz in 2002, when the socialist prime minister,

Péter Medgyessy Péter Medgyessy (; born 19 October 1942) is a retired Hungarian politician who served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 27 May 2002 to 29 September 2004. On 25 August 2004, he resigned over disputes with coalition partner Alliance of Free Democr ...

proved to be a former officer of the communist secret service (officer D-209). Kis has written numerous articles and books on political science, such as ''Politics as a Moral Problem''. Despite having left the political arena years ago, he continues to take controversial positions on several issues.

Sources

Biography at the New York University Website
* Gale Stokes, ''The Walls Came Tumbling Down'' (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 88–89. * Kis János- Hungarian Wikipedia-article: :hu:Kis János

External links

Janos Kis and Gyorgy Bence, “On Being A Marxist: A Hungarian View” (1977)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kis, Janos 1943 births Living people Hungarian philosophers Journalists from Budapest Jewish Hungarian politicians Alliance of Free Democrats politicians Central European University faculty Politicians from Budapest