The radical and rapid transformations of contemporary life give new urgency to many classical philosophical problems, such as the relationship between appearance and reality, the possibility and nature of knowledge, and the limits of human freedom. The discipline of philosophy, with its two-and-a-half millennia of history, uniquely combines conceptual clarification and historical reflection. Our Institute, therefore, emphasizes both problem-focused and historical research. Philosophy is part of the shared European heritage, and has now become a global enterprise. Accordingly, our researchers participate in international research across various fields. Moreover, a crucial part of our mission is to foster a Hungarian-language discourse on classical and contemporary philosophical problems – a task of significant scientific and cultural value. Another unique task – undertaken by no other institution – is to explore and present the Hungarian philosophical tradition to researchers in related disciplines and to the international academic community.
Our research focuses on four broad topics, which are further subdivided into sub-areas. The Department of Epistemology is responsible for Topic I, the Department of History and Philosophy of Science for Topic II, and the Department of History of Philosophy and Intellectual History for Topics III and IV. However, many of our researchers work across multiple interconnected areas.
I. Epistemological, Metaphysical, and Ethical Problems
Key areas: philosophy of mind, metaphilosophical problems, free will, artificial intelligence
Current research, aligned with contemporary international philosophical trends, centers on four interconnected major problem areas: (1) the justification and legitimacy of our beliefs; (2) the interrelationships between mental representation, phenomenal consciousness, and embodied mind concepts; (3) the relationship between human and artificial intelligence; and (4) the question of free will and moral/epistemic responsibility. Research on belief justification aims to uncover the roots of persistent philosophical disagreements and to identify which substantive philosophical beliefs can be rationally maintained despite the surrounding dissent. Our research on the nature of mental representations explores the connection between public and mental representations in the context of phenomenal consciousness and embodiment. Our goal is to demonstrate how developments in artificial intelligence are affecting our understanding of the human mind, to explore the extent to which AI can be considered conscious, and to interpret AI function within individual and social epistemology. Regarding moral/epistemic responsibility, our aim is to show that phenomenal consciousness is essential to both, and that everyone has an epistemic right to attribute moral and epistemic responsibility to themselves.
Research Funding in 2025:
- NKFIH OTKA K 146597 The Epistemic Status of Philosophical Beliefs.
II. Philosophy of Science
Key areas: philosophy of physics, values and science
Current research investigates the philosophical and conceptual foundations of modern science, particularly modern physics, and explores the sociological and historical context of science. The former involves analysis of the concept of contextuality in quantum mechanics, the relationship between probability and causality, the physicalist interpretation of modalities, and the meaning of local realism. The latter focuses on analyzing the nature of science using historical and contemporary examples, paying particular attention to distinguishing between science and pseudoscience, and examining socially relevant areas in medical and bioethics. Specific topics: (1) Physicalism and the physicalist analysis of modalities; (2) Philosophical analysis of interpretations of quantum mechanics; (3) Investigation into the logic of scientific representation; (4) Distinguishing between science and pseudoscience; (5) The problem of scientific and non-scientific values in science; (6) Ethical and philosophical-methodological analysis of medicine. (Related to this topic is the book series Issues in Bioethics, published by L’Harmattan.)
Research Funding in 2025:
- MTA Lendület LP2021-13/2021 Value-Polarizations in Science
- NKFIH OTKA K 134275 Rethinking the Foundations of Probability, Causality, and Contextuality: Applications in Physics and Beyond.
III. Universal History of Philosophy
Key areas: ancient philosophy, early modern philosophy, philosophical trends of the 19th and 20th centuries
Moving beyond the classical canon, international research in the history of philosophy in recent decades has opened new areas for philosophical reflection that enrich our understanding of contemporary social and cultural processes. Current research therefore focuses on the historical transformations of the self and its relationship with the surrounding world. Specific topics: (1) Conceptual and literary frameworks of Roman self-reflection; (2) Neoplatonic and patristic reception of Aristotelian philosophy; (3) Neoplatonic cosmology and the theory of time; (4) Early modern reception of ancient self-concepts, the emergence of the modern concept of the individual, the relationship between reflexivity and sensory experience; (5) The concept of tradition in post-World War II German Christian and liberal conservatism; (6) The philosophy of David Hume; (7) Leibniz’s concept of Central Europe; (8) The Vienna Circle and the beginnings of analytic philosophy.
We produce the series Classics of Analytic Philosophy, published by Gondolat Publishers. Furthermore, the Osiris Press and HUN-REN Research Centre for the Humanities are jointly undertaking a commented edition of the complete works of Plotinus.
Research Funding in 2025:
- NKFIH MEC K 141323 Ancient and Modern Selves: Tension or Complementarity?
- NKFIH OTKA K 145854 Human Being in Late Antiquity: Plotinus in Context.
IV. The Hungarian Philosophical Tradition
Key areas: reception of Cartesianism in the 17th century, beginnings of national philosophy in the 19th century, denominational philosophies in the 19th and 20th centuries, Catholic, conservative, sociologizing, and natural law traditions of the 20th century, philosophy during the socialist era, institutional history, and prosopography.
Current research focuses on: (1) neglected traditions within Hungarian philosophical history in their international context (Catholic philosophy, conservative political and value philosophy, school philosophy); (2) the history and place of the Hungarian sensus communis tradition within the European philosophical tradition and Hungarian national culture; and (3) source discovery and analysis using digital humanities tools.
The Hungarian Philosophical Archives operates within our Institute, containing digitized documents (especially manuscripts), as well as philosophical and biographical metadata from Hungarian philosophical history, primarily from the period of the development of modern Hungarian philosophy in the 19th and 20th centuries and its European context.
We produce the Ergo book series, Gondolat Publishers, which focuses on the Hungarian philosophical tradition.
Research Funding in 2025:
- NKFIH OTKA K 135638 The Tradition of “Sensus Communis” in the Hungarian Thought: Philosophy and the Public Realm; Public Philosophy, National Philosophy, National Characterology.
