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304Agricultural technologies as living machines: toward a biomimetic conceptualization of technologyEthics, Policy and Environment 21 (2): 246-263. 2018.Smart Farming Technologies raise ethical issues associated with the increased corporatization and industrialization of the agricultural sector. We explore the concept of biomimicry to conceptualize smart farming technologies as ecological innovations which are embedded in and in accordance with the natural environment. Such a biomimetic approach of smart farming technologies takes advantage of its potential to mitigate climate change, while at the same time avoiding the ethical issues related to…Read more
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15"Digital" plants and the rise of responsible precision agricultureIn Angela Kallhoff, M. Di Paola & M. Schörgenhumer (eds.), Plant Ethics, Routledge. pp. 213-220. 2018.Although agricultural mechanization, hybrid cultivars, the Green Revolution, and modern biotechnology have been implemented on a global scale, conventional farmers still have to face a lot of ethical debate and criticism. From a plants ethics perspective, they are challenged by organic farmers to reorganize their practices in a responsible way, and no longer consider plants as mere instruments. However, by embracing the development of precision farming, conventional crop production seems to turn…Read more
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310Understanding political responsibility in corporate citizenship: towards a shared responsibility for the common goodJournal of Global Ethics 13 (1): 90-108. 2017.ABSTRACTIn this article, we explore the debate on corporate citizenship and the role of business in global governance. In the debate on political corporate social responsibility it is assumed that under globalization business is taking up a greater political role. Apart from economic responsibilities firms assume political responsibilities taking up traditional governmental tasks such as regulation of business and provision of public goods. We contrast this with a subsidiarity-based approach to …Read more
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427Contextualizing Individual Competencies for Managing the Corporate Social Responsibility Adaptation Process: The Apparent Influence of the Business Case LogicBusiness and Society 58 (2): 369-403. 2019.Companies committed to corporate social responsibility should ensure that their managers possess the appropriate competencies to effectively manage the CSR adaptation process. The literature provides insights into the individual competencies these managers need but fails to prioritize them and adequately contextualize them in a manner that makes them meaningful in practice. In this study, we contextualized the competencies within the different job roles CSR managers have in the CSR adaptation pr…Read more
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220Appraising Asymmetries: Considerations on the Changing Relation between Human Existence and Planetary Nature—Guest Editors’ IntroductionJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (6): 635-644. 2018.
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253A critical hermeneutic reflection on the paradigm-level assumptions underlying responsible innovationSynthese 198 (Suppl 19): 4635-4666. 2018.The current challenges of implementing responsible innovation can in part be traced back to the assumptions behind the ways of thinking that ground the different pre-existing theories and approaches that are shared under the RI-umbrella. Achieving the ideals of RI, therefore not only requires a shift on an operational and systemic level but also at the paradigm-level. In order to develop a deeper understanding of this paradigm shift, this paper analyses the paradigm-level assumptions that are be…Read more
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229Entrepreneurship education with a focus on sustainable development primarily teaches students to develop a profit-driven mentality. As sustainable development is a value-oriented and normative concept, the role of individual ethical norms and values in entrepreneurial processes has been receiving increased attention. Therefore, this study addresses the role of moral competence in the process of idea generation for sustainable development. A mixed method design was developed in which would-be ent…Read more
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175In this article, we critically reflect on the responsibilities that the food industry has for public health. Although food companies are often significant contributors to public health problems, the mere possibility of corporate responsibility for public health seems to be excluded in the academic public health discourse. We argue that the behavior of several food companies reflects a split corporate personality, as they contribute to public health problems and simultaneously engage in activitie…Read more
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266The turbulent age of innovationSynthese 198 (Suppl 19): 1-17. 2018.The concept of innovation has entered a turbulent age. On the one hand, it is uncritically understood as ‘technological innovation’ and ‘commercialized innovation.’ On the other hand, ongoing research under the heading responsible research and innovation suggests that current global issues require innovation to go beyond its usual intent of generating commercial value. However, little thought goes into what innovation means conceptually. Although there is a focus on enabling outcomes of innovati…Read more
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12The practice of killing day-old chicks in the Dutch egg sector is a recurrent subject of societal debate. Preventing the killing of young animals and in ovo sex determination are the two main alternatives for this problem available. An online questionnaire was held to ask the opinion of the Dutch public about these alternatives. The results show that no alternative will be fully accepted, or accepted by more than half of Dutch society. However, the survey does provide an insight to what people t…Read more
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242Technocratic Management Versus Ethical Leadership Redefining Responsible Professionalism in the Agri-Food Sector in the AnthropoceneJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (5): 583-591. 2018.In this contribution, we argue that three related developments provide economic, environmental and social challenges and opportunities for a new responsible professionalism in the food chain: the Anthropocene; the bio-based economy; Precision Livestock Farming. These three interrelated developments indicate a transition in the way we understand the role and function of the food chain on the micro-, the meso- and the macro-level. This transition can be understood in two fundamental different ways…Read more
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1222“Massive Voluntarism” or Heidegger’s Confrontation with the WillStudie Phaenomenologica 13 (1): 449-465. 2013.One of the controversial issues in the development of Heidegger’s thought is the problem of the will. Th e communis opinio is that Heidegger embraced the concept of the will in a non-critical manner at the beginning of the thirties and , in particular, he employed it in his political speeches of 1933–1934. Jacques Derrida for instance speaks about a “massive voluntarism” in relation to Heidegger’s thought in this period. Also Brett Davis discerns a period of “existential voluntarism” in 1930–193…Read more
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441Saving Earth: encountering Heidegger's philosophy of technology in the anthropoceneTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (2/3): 222-242. 2017.In this paper, we argue that the Anthropocene is relevant for philosophy of technology because it makes us sensitive to the ontological dimension of contemporary technology. In §1, we show how the Anthropocene has ontological status insofar as the Anthropocenic world appears as managerial resource to us as managers of our planetary oikos. Next, we confront this interpretation of the Anthropocene with Heidegger’s notion of “Enframing” to suggest that the former offers a concrete experience of Hei…Read more
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56Toward a Terrestrial Turn in Philosophy of TechnologyTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (2/3): 114-126. 2017.
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240A Public Survey on Handling Male Chicks in the Dutch Egg SectorJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 31 (1): 93-107. 2018.In 2035 global egg demand will have risen 50% from 1985. Because we are not able to tell in the egg whether it will become a male or female chick, billons of one day-old male chicks will be killed. International research initiatives are underway in this area, and governments encourage the development of an alternative with the goal of eliminating the culling of day-old male chicks. The Netherlands holds an exceptional position in the European egg trade, but is also the only country in the Europe…Read more
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158Thinking the EarthEnvironmental Ethics 38 (4): 441-462. 2016.Quentin Meillassoux’s call for realism is a call for a new interest in the Earth as un-correlated being in philosophy. Unlike Meillassoux, Martin Heidegger has not been criticized for being a correlationist. To the contrary, his concept of the Earth has to be understood as un-correlated being, as it is opposed to the world as correlated being. First, this interpretation of Heidegger’s concept of the Earth solves various problems of interpretation that are present in the secondary literature. Se…Read more
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715Realism without Speculation: Heidegger, Meillassoux and the Question of Philosophical MethodStudia Phaenomenologica 17 381-404. 2017.In this article, we evaluate Meillassoux’s criticism of correlationism in general and of Heidegger’s correlationism in particular. Contrary to earlier contributions, we argue that Meillassoux’s reflections on uncorrelated being not only serve an epistemological but also an ontological interest; both Meillassoux and Heidegger are interested in the way we have access to uncorrelated being as well as in the nature of uncorrelated being itself. After introducing Meillassoux’s criticism of the correl…Read more
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487Earthing TechnologyTechné: Research in Philosophy and Technology (2/3). 2017.In this article, we reflect on the conditions under which new technologies emerge in the Anthropocene and raise the question of how to conceptualize sustainable technologies therein. To this end, we explore an eco-centric approach to technology development, called biomimicry. We discuss opposing views on biomimetic technologies, ranging from a still anthropocentric orientation focusing on human management and control of Earth’s life-support systems, to a real eco-centric concept of nature, found…Read more
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220Levinasian ethics in businessIn Deborah C. Poff & Alex C. Michalos (eds.), Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics, Springer Verlag. 2021.
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340Exploring Ethical Decision Making in Responsible Innovation: The case of innovations for healthy foodIn Blok V., Tempels T. H., Edwin Pietersma & Jansen L. (eds.), Responsible Innovation 3, Springer International Publishing. pp. 209-230. 2017.In order to strengthen RI in the private sector, it is imperative to understand how companies organise this process, where it takes place, and what considerations and motivations are central in the innovation process. In this chapter, the questions of whether and where normative considerations play a role in the innovation process, and whether dimensions of RI are present in the innovation process, are addressed. In order answer these research questions, a theoretical framework is developed base…Read more
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262Dealing with the Wicked Problem of Sustainability: The Role of Individual Virtuous CompetenceBusiness and Professional Ethics Journal 34 (3): 297-327. 2015.Over the past few years, individual competencies for sustainability have received a lot of attention in the educational, sustainability and business administration literature. In this article, we explore the meaning of two rather new and unfamiliar moral competencies in the field of corporate sustainability: normative competence and action competence. Because sustainability can be seen as a highly complex or ‘wicked’ problem, it is unclear what ‘normativity’ in the normative competence and ‘resp…Read more
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256Contesting the Will: Phenomenological Reflections on Four Structural Moments in the Concept of WillingJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 49 (1): 18-35. 2018.The starting point of this article is the undeniable experience of conscious willing despite its rejection by scientific research. The article starts a phenomenology of willing at the level of the phenomenon of willing itself, without assuming its embeddedness in a faculty of the soul, consciousness and so forth. After the introduction, a brief history of the philosophy of willing is provided, from which the paradoxical conclusion is drawn that, according to phenomenologists like Heidegger and h…Read more
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Kontroversen über die sprache.: Die einseitigkeit Von heideggers auseinandersetzung mit Ernst jüngerExistentia 17 (1-2): 19-30. 2007.
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272Ecological Innovation: Biomimicry as a New Way of Thinking and Acting EcologicallyJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 29 (2): 203-217. 2016.In this article, we critically reflect on the concept of biomimicry. On the basis of an analysis of the concept of biomimicry in the literature and its philosophical origin, we distinguish between a strong and a weaker concept of biomimicry. The strength of the strong concept of biomimicry is that nature is seen as a measure by which to judge the ethical rightness of our technological innovations, but its weakness is found in questionable presuppositions. These presuppositions are addressed by t…Read more
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371Naming Being – or the philosophical Content of Heidegger’s National SocialismHeidegger Studies 28 101-122. 2012.This contribution discusses the philosophical meaning of the Martin Heidegger’s Rectoral address. First of all, Heidegger’s philosophical basic experience is sketched as the background of his Rectoral address; the being-historical concept of “Anfang”. Then, the philosophical question of the Rectoral address is discussed. It is shown, that Die Selbstbehauptung der deutschen Universität is asking for the identity of human being there (Dasein) in connection with the question about dem Eigenen (the …Read more
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254The Ideal of a Zero-Waste Humanity: Philosophical Reflections on the Demand for a Bio-Based EconomyJournal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28 (2): 353-374. 2015.In this paper we inquire into the fundamental assumptions that underpin the ideal of the Bio-Based Economy as it is currently developed . By interpreting the BBE from the philosophical perspective on economy developed by Georges Bataille, we demonstrate how the BBE is fully premised on a thinking of scarcity. As a result, the BBE exclusively frames economic problems in terms of efficient production, endeavoring to exclude a thinking of abundance and wastefulness. Our hypothesis is that this not …Read more
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17Recensies - René ten Bos & Mollie Painter-Morland (2013). Bedrijfsethiek. Filosofische Perspectieven. Amsterdam: Boom, 236 pp., 32,50 € (review)Algemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 106 (1): 94-97. 2014.Amsterdam University Press is a leading publisher of academic books, journals and textbooks in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Our aim is to make current research available to scholars, students, innovators, and the general public. AUP stands for scholarly excellence, global presence, and engagement with the international academic community.
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231Heidegger and Derrida on the Nature of Questioning: Towards the Rehabilitation of Questioning in Contemporary PhilosophyJournal of the British Society for Phenomenology 46 (4): 307-322. 2015.In this article, the Heidegger and Derrida controversy about the nature of questioning is revisited in order to rehabilitate questioning as an essential characteristic of contemporary philosophy. After exploring Heidegger's characterization of philosophy as questioning and Derrida's criticism of the primacy of questioning, we will evaluate Derrida's criticism and articulate three characteristics of Heidegger's concept of questioning. After our exploration of Heidegger's concept of questioning, w…Read more
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De andere Anfang van de filosofie. Kritische kanttekeningen bij Heideggers filosofische methodeAlgemeen Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Wijsbegeerte 102 (4). 2010.
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Wageningen University and ResearchCommunication, Philosophy and Technology (CPT)Associate Professor
Wageningen, GE, Netherlands
Areas of Interest
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