Czech Professor Protests Against Oxford ‘Censorship’ Of Plato Debate
Balliol college "slammed" by Czech academic, Dr Julius Tomin.
Czech academic Dr Julius Tomin has slammed Balliol and the University generally for their supposed reluctance to participate in open academic debate about Plato. For the second time in ten years he is to protest about his perceived exclusion. Dr Tomin will be standing outside Balliol on three successive Wednesdays this month.
His placard will read: ‘A philosopher from Prague appeals to Oxford Academics: Let us discuss Plato’, an allusion to his belief that, “Platonic scholarship has sunk into a very sorry state”. Tomin came to Britain in 1980 following an invitation by the then Master of the college, Dr Anthony Kenny. Tomin had previously invited Kenny to talk in Prague. He worked as an academic visitor before being made redundant.
Tomin intended to return to Czechoslovakia, but discovered he a had been deprived of his Czech citizenship. Tomin says he is convinced Kenny acted to undermine his academic reputation. “His assertion throughout his talk [in Prague] was that Aristotle said those who were called to study philosophy should do so, and that those who pursued it in their own time were bad men. He was trying to undermine me.”
Tomin also accuses the University of co-operating with secret police to undermine communism in Eastern Europe. He claims when he first came to Oxford he was under the impression he would be partaking in open discussion, but after arriving he stated that due to international concerns a “cloak of secrecy”developed. “It was an attempt to dismantle Communism,” he said. Vice-Master of Balliol Dr John Jones claimed the statement about Dr Tomin’s supposed exclusion was “misleading”.
28th Apr 2005