This is a relatively independent part of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities created on 1 April. It is a new and not previously existing position in one. René van Woudenberg is mainly concerned with 1) streamlining the administrative and communication processes within the School and within the new faculty, 2) getting to know all new colleagues, "very exciting".
Career
René van Woudenberg is professor of philosophy and works in epistemology and metaphysics. He studied Philosophy and Dutch, received his PhD with a study on transcendental arguments in contemporary philosophy. He then worked in Utrecht and received a 5-year Academy scholarship from the KNAW. That fellowship enabled him to spend a year at the University of Notre Dame working with Alvin Plantinga, Phil Quinn, Tim O'Connor, Peter van Inwagen and Dean Zimmerman.
Career at VU Amsterdam
He was appointed professor of philosophy at VU Amsterdam in 2001 and dean of the small Faculty of Philosophy in 2007. After concluding the deanship, he was PI in a number of major research projects. He had the opportunity to guide more than 20 candidates to their PhDs, always in collaboration with others.
From 2024 to April 2025, he was dean of the Faculty of Humanities and was closely involved in the merger with the Faculty of Religion and Theology and the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Publications
Topics he has published on include: scepticism, sources of knowledge, reading and interpretation, person identity, chance and design, scientism, common sense, the task of the university, the nature of the humanities, the relationship of science to religious faith, the philosophy of Thomas Reid, the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd.
In June 2025, Oxford University Press will publish the book A Philosophy of the Humanities, which he wrote, together with Stephen Grimm and Rik Peels.
What do you hope to contribute to the new faculty?
'In the new faculty, I hope to contribute to 1) the visibility of and interest in the School of Religion and Theology; 2) an understanding of the nature and significance of the humanities and of what that means for interdisciplinary collaboration; 3) the profiling of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as a special institution that has a productive relationship with its origins and history.'
