Peter-Paul Verbeek
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Peter-Paul Verbeek (born 6 December 1970, in
Middelburg Middelburg may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Europe * Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands ** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...
) is Rector Magnificus of the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Science and Technology in a Changing World since 1 October 2022. Prior to his appointment in Amsterdam, Verbeek, a Dutch philosopher of technology, has been chair of the philosophy department at the
University of Twente The University of Twente (Dutch: ''Universiteit Twente''; , abbr. ) is a public technical university located in Enschede, Netherlands. The university has been placed in the top 170 universities in the world by multiple central ranking tables. ...
. He was a member of the Dutch council for the Humanities and chair of the Society for Philosophy and Technology. Since 2018, he has also been University Professor of Philosophy of Humans and Technology and scientific codirector of the DesignLab at the University of Twente. He is an honorary professor at Aalborg University in Denmark. Furthermore, Verbeek was, among other things, vice-chair of the Board of the Rathenau Institute and chair of the Committee for the Freedom of Scientific Pursuit at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.


Background

Verbeek studied Philosophy of Science, Technology & Society at the University of Twente and obtained his
PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...
in 2000. His dissertation was published in English under the title "What things do: philosophical reflections on technology, agency and design". He worked closely together with
Hans Achterhuis Herman Johan "Hans" Achterhuis (born September 1, 1942, Hengelo) is Professor Emeritus in Systematic Philosophy at the University of Twente, The Netherlands. For now his research concerns particularly social and political philosophy and philosophy ...
and
Don Ihde Don Ihde (; born 1934) is an American philosopher of science and technology.Katinka Waelbers, ''Doing Good with Technologies: Taking Responsibility for the Social Role of Emerging Technologies'', Springer, 2011, p. 77. In 1979 he wrote what is of ...
in formulating an original, post-phenomenological approach in the tradition of
Philosophy of Technology The philosophy of technology is a sub-field of philosophy that studies the nature of technology and its social effects. Philosophical discussion of questions relating to technology (or its Greek ancestor ''techne'') dates back to the very dawn of ...
. As chair of the philosophy department at the University of Twente, he has been chairman of the Young Academy, the platform for young researchers of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
. He worked on a research project for which he obtained an NWO Vici grant aimed at the expansion of his theory of technological mediation in the areas of
metaphysics Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy that studies the fundamental nature of reality, the first principles of being, identity and change, space and time, causality, necessity, and possibility. It includes questions about the nature of conscio ...
,
epistemology Epistemology (; ), or the theory of knowledge, is the branch of philosophy concerned with knowledge. Epistemology is considered a major subfield of philosophy, along with other major subfields such as ethics, logic, and metaphysics. Episte ...
and
ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is a branch of philosophy that "involves systematizing, defending, and recommending concepts of right and wrong behavior".''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' The field of ethics, along with aesthetics, concerns m ...
. In 2018 Verbeek was elected member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
.


Theory of Technological Mediation

Verbeek's theory of technological mediation builds on the postphenomenological approach that was firstly stipulated by
Don Ihde Don Ihde (; born 1934) is an American philosopher of science and technology.Katinka Waelbers, ''Doing Good with Technologies: Taking Responsibility for the Social Role of Emerging Technologies'', Springer, 2011, p. 77. In 1979 he wrote what is of ...
. This approach finds its origins in a synthesis between classical phenomenology and American pragmatism, with as one of its major premises the thesis that "technology only bears meaning in a use context". From a critique of classical philosophy of technology, in which Verbeek explicitly elaborates on the existentialist philosophy of
Karl Jaspers Karl Theodor Jaspers (, ; 23 February 1883 – 26 February 1969) was a German-Swiss psychiatrist and philosopher who had a strong influence on modern theology, psychiatry, and philosophy. After being trained in and practicing psychiatry, Jasper ...
and the hermeneutic philosophy of technology of
Martin Heidegger Martin Heidegger (; ; 26 September 188926 May 1976) was a German philosopher who is best known for contributions to phenomenology, hermeneutics, and existentialism. He is among the most important and influential philosophers of the 20th centur ...
. Verbeek presents as the purpose of his theory of technological mediation to systematically analyzing the influence of technology on human behavior in terms of the role technology plays in human-world relations. In his original theory, a number of different human-technology-world relations are stipulated (the first four based on the philosophy of Don Ihde): * Embodiment relations: in which the technology does not call attention to itself but to aspects of the world given through it (e.g. glasses) * Hermeneutic relations: in which the technology represents a certain aspect of the world (e.g. a thermometer) * Background relations: in which technology shapes the experiential context, going beyond conscious experience (e.g. room temperature through a central heating system) * Alterity relations: in which technology presents itself as quasi other to the subject (e.g. an ATM) * Cyborg relations: in which technology merges with the human (e.g., brain implants) * Immersion relations: in which technology forms an interactive context (e.g., smart homes) * Augmentation relations: in which technology mediates and alters our experience of the world, e.g., Google Glass. A unique feature of Verbeek's philosophy of technology is its basis in an empirical analysis of technologies. Instead of generating an overarching framework by which the universal features of specific technologies can be analyzed, Verbeek takes the technology itself as point of departure; which is for example illustrated by his analysis of ultrasound technology Verbeek (2008) Obstetric Ultrasound and the Technological Mediation of Morality : A Postphenomenological Analysis; Human Studies


Selected works

* Verbeek, P.P. (2011), ''Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things''. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press. * Verbeek, P.P. (2005), ''What Things Do – Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design''. Penn State: Penn State University Press, (264 pp.) * Kroes, P. and P.P. Verbeek (eds.) (2014), ''The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts''. Dordrecht: Springer, (248 pp.) * Verbeek, P.P. and A. Slob (eds.) (2006), ''User Behavior and Technology Development – Shaping Sustainable Relations between Consumers and Technologies''. Dordrecht: Springer, / 978-1-4020-4433-5 (412 pp.)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Verbeek, Peter-Paul 1970 births Living people 21st-century Dutch philosophers Philosophers of technology Academic staff of the University of Twente University of Twente alumni Academic staff of the Delft University of Technology People from Middelburg, Zeeland Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences