René van Woudenberg
C.V. René van Woudenberg
This CV is organized as follows:
A. Personal Data
B. Education
C. Grants & Fellowships
D. Academic Positions
E. Research Interests
A. Personal data
born 24 September 1957 in The Hague, The Netherlands
gender male
nationality Dutch
address Department of Philosophy
VU University
De Boelelaan 1105
1081 HV Amsterdam
The Netherlands
e-mail R.van_Woudenberg@ph.vu.nl
B. Education
23 May 1991
Ph.D. (cum laude) in philosophy. Supervisor: Prof. dr Nicholas Wolterstorff (Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA)
1977-1984
Study Philosophy and Literature & Linguistics, VU University, Amsterdam
1977
diploma Atheneum B (De Populierschool, Den Haag)
C. Grants, Fellowships and Awards
June 2009
Pew Fellowship for work on Philosophy and Liturgy with Nicholas Wolterstorff and Terence Cuneo.
2007-2008
Plantinga Fellowship for a sabbatical at University of Notre Dame
2007
elected as member of the Koninklijke Hollandse Maatschappij
der Wetenschappen.
2006
NWO Internationalization Grant `Knowledge, Belief, and Normativity` for work with Duncan Pritchard (Edinburgh) and Igor Douven (Louvain)
2004
Templeton Summer Fellowship for participation in seminar on “Nature in Belief” (with Jeff Schloss, Westmont and Alvin Plantinga, Notre Dame)
2001
Templeton Fellowship for a seminar on Evolutionary Psychology (with Phil Clayton, Claremont and Jeff Schloss, Westmont)
1999
Pew Fellowship for work with William P. Alston on Realism and Antirealism.
1992-1993
Fellowship Center for Philosophy of Religion at the University of Notre Dame (Indiana, USA), director: Alvin Plantinga.
1992-1997
Research Grant from the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW fellowship)
1991-1992
Grant for a book project from the Association for Calvinist Philosophy.
1989-1991
Research Grant Stipend from the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
1985-1989
Stipend Free University (BRO stipend)
D. Academic Positions
September 2008
Dean of the Philosophy Department VU University
August 2007-August 2008
sabbatical at the University of Notre Dame
July 1, 2001
tenured professor of philosophy for teaching and research in Epistemology and Ontology, VU University, Amsterdam
1997
tenured lecturer (UHD) in philosophy, Free University, Department of Philosophy, Amsterdam
1992-1997
Fellow Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Amsterdam
1992-1993
post-doctoral fellow University of Notre Dame
1991-1992
post-doctoral position Catholic University Utrecht
1985-1991
research assistant, Department of Philosophy, Free University, Amsterdam
E. Research Interests
From the time of my PhD work onwards I have been interested in, and been working on, closely related epistemological problems. In my dissertation I carefully studied so-called transcendental arguments against scepticism. In the final chapter of that book I argued, among other things, that Thomas Reid’s approach of scepticism is as least as powerful as the transcendental approach. I have been working on Reid’s epistemology ever since. Related with this, I have also been interested in both the structure of knowledge and the sources of human knowledge. During my KNAW fellowship, I have worked on a project called “Foundationalism and Sources of Knowledge”. Its basic idea was that human knowledge is acquired through the working of various ‘faculties’ or ‘mechanisms’ such as perception, reason, memory, testimony and moral intuition and that some of such knowledge is ‘foundational’ in character, i.e. not the result of reasoning or argument. A few years ago I extended research in this area by entering the discussion of evolutionary explanations of various types of belief, especially moral belief.
Currently I am working on a book project on responsible belief. I deal with such issues as: what is belief? The involuntariness of belief; can we be held responsible for what we believe?; what is presupposed when we ascribe responsibility to each others; what does responsible belief require in the face of peer disagreement?; if evolution selects for adaptive belief, do considerations about responsible belief come to naught?
Another research interest of mine has been ontology. I have been working mainly on three problems here. First, on the problem of identity through time, second on part-whole relationships, and finally on questions related to chance, randomness and design. Research in this field has sometimes dove tailed with my research in epistemology, as in various papers on realism.
A further interest, mirrored in various publications (notably my book in Dutch Filosofie van taal en tekst), has been in semantics, more precisely, in the ontological aspects of semantics. Semantics is highly relevant for epistemological inquiries.
A final interest of mine concerns science-religion issues and issues having to do with the intellectual respectability of religious belief, the relevance of religious belief to philosophy, and apologetics.
