Peter-Paul Verbeek (1970) is Rector Magnificus and professor of Philosophy and Ethics of Science and Technology in a Changing World at the University of Amsterdam. His research and teaching focus on the philosophy of human-technology relations, and aims to contribute to philosophical theory, ethical reflection, and practices of design and innovation. He is also co-editor-in-chief of the Journal of Human-Technology Relations and board member of the League of European Research Universities (LERU).
Previously, he was distinguished professor of philosophy of technology at the University of Twente (The Netherlands), where he was also co-director of its DesignLab. He is also past honorary professor of Techno-Anthropology at Aalborg University (Denmark) and past Socrates chair of philosophy of human-technology relations (Delft University of Technology). He was also chairperson of the UNESCO World Commission for the Ethics of Science and Technology (COMEST), vice chair of the board of the Rathenau Institute, member of the supervisory board of TNO (Dutch organisation for applied research), member of the domain board for Social Sciences and Humanities of the Dutch science foundation NWO, and chair of the Committee for the Freedom of Scientific Pursuit of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences.
His work has received several awards, including an NWO-VENI award (2003), VIDI award (2007), VICI Award (2014), the Borghgraef Prize in Biomedical Ethics 2012 (Leuven University), the World Technology Award in Ethics 2016 (World Technology Network, New York). Between 2013 and 2015 he was President of the Society for Philosophy and Technology; between 2011 and 2013 he was chairperson of ‘The Young Academy’, an independent division of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences (KHMW). He also is a foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts.
Peter-Paul Verbeek is author of several books, including Moralizing Technology: Understanding and Designing the Morality of Things (University of Chicago Press , in which he analyzes the moral significance of technologies, and its implications for ethical theory and for design practices and What Things Do: Philosophical Reflections on Technology, Agency, and Design (Penn State University Press, which investigates how technologies mediate human actions and experiences, with applications to industrial design. He is co-editor of the volumes Postphenomenological Investigations: Essays on Human-Technology Relations (Lexington 2015, with Robert Rosenberger), The Moral Status of Technical Artefacts (Springer 2014, with Peter Kroes), and User Behavior and Technology Development – Shaping Sustainable Relations between Consumers and Technologies (Springer 2006, with Adriaan Slob). In Dutch, he published De Daadkracht der Dingen (Uitgeverij Boom), De Grens van de Mens (Uitgeverij Lemniscaat), Op de vleugels van Icarus (Uitgeverij Lemniscaat), and Wat Maakt de Mens? (Uitgeverij Boom).
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Peter-Paul Verbeek 