Institut Jean Nicod
UMR 8129 CNRS,
Ecole Normale Supérieure,
Pavillon Jardin,
29, rue d’Ulm,
75005 Paris, France
March 31, 2017.
Mr. Zoltán Balog
Minister of Human Capacities
1054 Budapest, Akadémia utca 3.
Hungary
Dear Minister Balog,
Institut Jean Nicod is a CNRS research group affiliated with Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris (France). Its members conduct research and direct doctoral students in the areas of philosophy, the cognitive and the social sciences. Many of us, members of this group, have had in the past twelve or so years direct and regular contact with members both the Philosophy Department and the Department of Cognitive Science at CEU, both of which we take to be outstanding academic environments.
In the Fall 2011, two distinguished developmental psychologists from the CEU Department of Cognitive Science, Gergo Csibra and Gyuri Gergely, received the Jean Nicod Prize, which is awarded every year to a leading philosopher of mind or to a philosophically oriented cognitive scientist, for his or her contribution to our understanding of the human mind and human cognition. We have just learnt to our dismay that the Hungarian government is presently considering new legislation to be presented to the Hungarian Parliament that would make it impossible for CEU to continue its present operations in Budapest.
We strongly urge the Hungarian government and the Hungarian Parliament to take every possible measure to ensure that CEU will be able in the future to continue and to develop its activities in Budapest, for the sake of strengthening scientific research and higher education in Hungary and for strengthening the link between Hungarian culture and European culture.
Pierre Jacob (Senior Researcher, CNRS; former Director of Institut Jean Nicod)
Philippe Schlenker (Senior Researcher, CNRS; Global Distinguished Professor, New York
University)
Gloria Origgi (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Uriah Kriegel (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Isidora Stojanovic (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Sacha Bourgeois-Gironde (Professor of Economics at University Paris 2 and member of Inst. Jean-
Nicod).
Benjamin Spector (Senior Researcher, CNRS, Professeur attaché, Ecole normale supérieure)
Claudine Tiercelin (Professor at the Collège de France, Paris)
Nicolas Baumard (Junior Researcher, CNRS)
Tiziana Zalla (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Paul Egré (Senior Researcher, CNRS, Professeur attaché, Ecole normale supérieure)
Brent Strickland (Junior Researcher, CNRS)
David Nicolas (Junior Researcher, CNRS)
François Recanati (Senior Researcher, CNRS; Professor, EHESS; Director of Institut Jean-Nicod)
Joëlle Proust (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Valérian Chambon (Junior Researcher, CNRS)
Elisabeth Pacherie (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Alban Bouvier (Professor at Aix-Marseille University & Senior Researcher, Institut Jean Nicod).
Roberto Casati (Senior Researcher, CNRS)
Jérôme Dokic (Professor EHESS)
Frédérique de Vignemont (Senior Researcher CNRS)