Enschede, Netherlands
  •  428
    This paper provides a phenomenological analysis of postphenomenological philosophy of technology. While acknowledging that the results of its analyses are to be recognized as original, insightful, and valuable, we will argue that in its execution of the empirical turn, postphenomenology forfeits a phenomenological dimension of questioning. By contrasting the postphenomenological method with Heidegger’s understanding of phenomenology as developed in his early Freiburg lectures and in Being and Ti…Read more
  •  404
    Saving Earth: encountering Heidegger's philosophy of technology in the anthropocene
    Techné: 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
  •  220
    The Ideal of a Zero-Waste Humanity: Philosophical Reflections on the Demand for a Bio-Based Economy
    with Vincent Blok, Pieter Lemmens, and Robert-Jan Geerts
    Journal 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
  •  220
    Is Dandelion Rubber More Natural? Naturalness, Biotechnology and the Transition Towards a Bio-Based Society
    with Hub Zwart and Lotte Krabbenborg
    Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 28 (2): 313-334. 2015.
    In the unfolding debate on the prospects, challenges and viability of the imminent transition towards a ‘Bio-Based Society’ or ‘Bio-based Economy’—i.e. the replacement of fossil fuels by biomass as a basic resource for the production of energy, materials and food, ‘big’ concepts tend to play an important role, such as, for instance, ‘sustainability’, ‘global justice’ and ‘naturalness’. The latter concept is, perhaps, the most challenging and intriguing one. In public debates concerning biotechno…Read more
  •  198
    This paper offers a twofold ontological conceptualization of technology in the Anthropocene. On the one hand, we aim to show how the Anthropocene occasions an experience of our inescapable inclusion in the technological structuring of reality that Martin Heidegger associates with cybernetics. On the other hand, by confronting Heidegger’s thought on technology with Georges Bataille’s consideration of technological existence as economic and averted existence, we will criticize Heidegger’s account …Read more
  •  48
    Toward a Terrestrial Turn in Philosophy of Technology
    Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology 21 (2/3): 114-126. 2017.
  •  10
    Accepting the Exceptional?
    Foundations of Science 27 (3): 1009-1014. 2021.
    This commentary attempts to contribute to a further elucidation of Dominic Smith’s call for a rehabilitation of the transcendental in philosophy of technology. On the one hand, it focuses on why such a rehabilitation is deemed necessary, particularly in light of Smith’s diagnosis of a contemporary tendency towards reification and presentism. Postphenomenology is discussed as a challenge and invitation to further clarify the stakes. On the other hand, this commentary inquires into how Smith envis…Read more
  •  6
    In coming to grips with the advent of the Anthropocene, contemporary philosophers have recently pushed beyond its many physical implications (e.g., global warming, reduced biodiversity) and social significance (e.g., climate justice, economics, migration) to interpret the Anthropocene metaphysically. According to such interpretations, the Anthropocene imposes nothing less than a wholly new understanding of the world. This raises the question regarding the character of such an imposition. To deve…Read more
  •  4
    In this chapter, we develop the claim that today, in light of the distributed catastrophe called the Anthropocene, the question of ethics first and foremost becomes a question of economy and energy. Supplementing existing ethical approaches to the question of economy and energy, we offer what we understand to be a more fundamental economical interpretation of the Anthropocene by way of Georges Bataille’s philosophical thought on economy. We will argue that inasmuch as it results from what has co…Read more