Leonidas Donskis

Leonidas Donskis (13 August 1962 – 21 September 2016) was a Jewish-Lithuanian philosopher, political theorist, historian of ideas, social analyst, and political commentator, professor of politics and head of "VDU Academia Cum Laude" at Vytautas Magnus University and Honorary Consul of Finland in Kaunas. He was also the member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2009 to 2014.

As a public figure in Lithuania, he acted as a defender of human rights and civil liberties. In 2004, Donskis has been awarded by the European Commission the title of the Ambassador for Tolerance and Diversity in Lithuania. His main scholarly interests lie in philosophy of history, philosophy of culture, philosophy of literature, philosophy of the social sciences, civilization theory, political theory, history of ideas, and studies in Central and East European thought.

Some of his most acclaimed works are Liquid Evil (2016, with Zygmunt Bauman), Moral Blindness: the Loss of Sensivity in Liquid Modernity (2013, with Zygmunt Bauman), Modernity in Crisis: A Dialogue on the Culture of Belonging (2011), Identity and Freedom: Mapping Nationalism and Social Criticism in Twentieth-Century Lithuania (2002) etc.

Image source: © Photo Parlement Europeen