Jeroen is associate professor of Philosophy at VU Amsterdam and associate professor of Christian Philosophy at the University of Groningen. His research focuses on social epistemology, philosophy of science and philosophy of religion, as well as issues such as: do groups have their own beliefs and knowledge? Are there collective intellectual virtues? In his research on knowledge and democracy, De Ridder brings together theory of knowledge and political philosophy.
From April 2020 to April 2022, Jeroen was chair of The Young Academy. In that capacity, he championed science policy, and in particular, issues such as reducing the regulatory burden, creating a better balance between research funding for curiosity-driven and thematic research and a smarter academic year. Since 2019, he also served as co-chair of the SSH Philosophy, History and Religious Studies table.
“I have noticed a growing realisation that social sciences and humanities are not only fascinating in themselves but also desperately needed to solve social problems. I want to spread that message in the coming years with the other domain board members. Moreover, it is an interesting time for the SSH domain. In my opinion, the cabinet’s investments in science and the new NWO strategy offer a variety of opportunities to make NWO’s range of instruments even better suited to the needs and research agendas of social scientists and humanities scholars,” says De Ridder.