Gáspár Miklós Tamás, often referred to in the media as TGM, is a Hungarian Marxist philosopher and public intellectual.
Career
He writes primarily about political and aesthetic questions. Born in Cluj, Romania, he presently lives in Budapest. While in contact with these authors, his perspective is distinct from the Budapest School, the major tradition of leftist Hungarian philosophy.
From 1986 to 1988, he taught in the United States., Britain, and France, and studied at Oxford.
He served in the Hungarian Parliament as a representative of the Alliance of Free Democrats (Szabad Demokraták Szövetsége (Alliance of Free Democrats)), from 1989 to 1994. He re-identified as a Marxist in the early years of the 21st century.
He served as President of the extra-parliamentary Green Left between 2010 and 2011. He also refers to the insights of Georges Bataille and Moishe Postone.
In his words.
Politics
A dissident at the end of the state socialist (Communist) period, he was initially a libertarian socialist. At the beginning of the post-socialist era in 1989, he became committed to a liberal program, and was a leader of the Alliance of Free Democrats. He is a vocal opponent of the Hungarian state, governed by Viktor Orbán and the Fidesz party, as well as neoliberalism.
His theoretical work draws on the ideas of Italian autonomism (Antonio Negri), German Neue Marx-Lektüre (Hans-Georg Backhaus and Helmut Reichelt), and American Political Marxism (Robert Brenner and Ellen Meiksins Wood). He is known for developing the concept of post-fascism.
Membership
Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
