Projects
Detachment in Ethical Life
Summary: It seems that, in our lives, detachment is both of great import (we do not want our points of view to be parochial) and dangerous (we do not want our point of view to be completely disengaged). What role, then, should detachment play in our moral lives?
Location: Protestant Theological University (2022 – 2025), as part of its Moral Compass Project (2018 – 2025)
Funding: Stichting Paradosis
Amount: € 250.000
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Reflective Equilibrium and Practical Wisdom
Summary: Reflective equilibrium is a very influential method of ethical reflection, but it is not critical enough. Is it possible improve reflective equilibrium by supplementing it with an account of the virtue of practical wisdom? And, more fundamentally, how should we understand the relation between reflection and perception in ethics?
Location: Protestant Theological University (2018 – 2022)
Funding: VENI / Dutch Research Council (NWO)
Amount: € 250.000
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Moral Exemplarity and Transformation
Summary: Paying attention to those we deem as exemplary inspires us to improve ourselves. This makes it quite important to recognize and emulate our exemplars. Yet, this recognition and emulation occur, for a large part, unconsciously. How, then, should we understand these ways of relating to our exemplars?
Location: Protestant Theological University (2016 – 2017)
Funding: Protestant Theological University
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Changing Conceptions of the Good. MacIntyre and Kierkegaard on the Virtues and the Good Life
Summary: Alasdair MacIntyre famously criticized Søren Kierkegaard for being the first to develop an understanding of ethical life that is grounded in the idea that there are no reasons to be ethical. Is MacIntyre’s charge correct? And, more importantly, are there reasons to be ethical?
Location: University of Antwerp (2012 – 2016), Radboud University Nijmegen (2014 – 2016)
Funding: Research Project / Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (FWO)
Amount: € 260.000
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Kierkegaard’s ethics of becoming oneself: A contemporary virtue ethics
Summary: Søren Kierkegaard’s views on ethics are both distinctly late modern and inspired by classical Greek thought. Can we understand his moral philosophy in terms of a contemporary rendition of classical virtue ethical thought?
Location: University of Antwerp (2010 – 2011)
Funding: Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds (BOF) / University of Antwerp
Amount: € 40.000
