Under
communism he was one of the editors of the
samizdat quarterly
"Arka". After the collapse of the communist regime he co-founded the
Centre for Political Thought, which combines research, teaching, seminars and conferences and is also a publishing house. He has translated and written commentaries to
Plato's Phaedo (1995),
Euthyphro (1998) and
Apology (2003). He is the author of several books: ''Plato's Critique of Democracy
(1990), Toleration
(1997), A Treatise on Liberty
(2007) and An Essay on the Polish Soul
(2008), Socrates'' (2013). In 2005 he was elected to a seat in the
Polish Senate (representing the
Law and Justice Party), where he became
Deputy Speaker. In 2007 he was
Poland's Education Minister, and in 2007–9 Secretary of State in the
Chancellery of President Lech Kaczyński. He is currently a member of the
European Parliament, where he sits on the
Foreign Affairs Committee, a head of the Polish Law and Justice Delegation to the European Parliament and a Co-chairman of the
Conservatives and Reformists parliamentary group. Sued in 2010 for violation of personal rights by calling students who demanded removal of Christian symbols from a public school "unruly brats spoiled by their parents", he asked for a dismissal of the case based on his immunity as a member of European Parliament. In 2011 the court denied that request. Plaintiffs are represented by an attorney on a pro-bono basis under the Precedential Cases Program of the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights. He lost this case. He is a fellow of
Collegium Invisibile as a professor of philosophy. ==Views==