Brian O'Connor, MRIA is an Irish social philosopher active in the tradition of continental European intellectual thought. O'Connor is a professor of philosophy at University College Dublin and director of the school of philosophy. He has written extensively on German Idealism and Critical Theory, and is an expert on the philosopher, Adorno. O’Connor has also written on the subject of idleness in his 2018 book of the same name, which provided a comparative analysis of the philosophy of idleness. He was awarded a higher doctorate by the National University of Ireland in 2021. In May 2021, he was made a member of the Royal Irish Academy.