Machiel Keestra
Current position
Machiel Keestra is assistant professor (UD) at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of Amsterdam. He teaches in the Beta-Gamma (Natural & Social Sciences) Bachelor program, Interdisciplinary Honours Modules, Brain and Cognitive Sciences Master program, and other interdisciplinary modules. His research interests are tragedy, philosophy of action and the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience.
He is elected board member of the US based Association for Integrative Studies since Fall 2010.
Instituut voor Interdisciplinaire Studies
Association for Integrative Studies
Research
Currently my research focuses on human action, from a variety of perspectives. Having written on language and human action in a.o. Aristotle and Hegel, and on tragic action, my research focus is now on the philosophy of neuroscience – in particular the neuroscience of action. What is the relevance of the results of neuroscience for the philosophy of action, and what could a philosophical critique of neuroscience be? Looking at a specific type, like moral action, what can we learn from the exchange between philosophy and neuroscience? Does the empirical evidence provided by neuroscience offer justification for preferring a particular philosophical analysis of action over another? This holds not just for the specifics of action, but also for the understanding of action, where an integration of neuroscience and hermeneutics should further mutual constraints. Clearly, an answer to such questions requiresknowledge of the fields of neuroscience and philosophy of action as well as a philosophy of science perspective, while the results of this interdisciplinary endeavor are of importance to ethics.
Keestra poster for Moral Theory and Empirical Research in NL network
Teaching
Machiel Keestra teaches and coordinates the following interdisciplinary (mostly team-taught) courses:
'De Handelende Mens' - interdisciplinair themaonderwijs
Interdisciplinair onderzoekspractikum
Masters of Suspicion: Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud (honours course)
Ethicsin theory and application (honours course)
Science in Perspective (Beta Master module)
Wetenschapsfilosofie: reflecties op robuuste kennis
Het Brein: wat weten wetenschappers en wat kunnen we daarmee?
Current Issues in Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Short bio
Machiel Keestra studied philosophy in Amsterdam and Heidelberg (Germany). He also obtained a propaedeutic degree in Psychology in Amsterdam. Formerly a staff member of the International School of Philosophy in Leusden (NL) and the General Studies dept. of the University of Amsterdam he taught and organised many courses and seminars on philosophical, scientific and cultural subjects. He is assistant professor at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies of the UvA since 2003. He has published about the history of science, the history of philosophy (mainly Aristotle, Hegel and contemporary philosophy), the philosophy of language, tragedy (modern and ancient) and the tragic. Currently, his main research focus is on the philosophy of action and the philosophy of cognitive neuroscience.
For a Curriculum Vitaesee the link below.
Internationale School voor Wijsbegeerte
Studium Generale, Universiteit van Amsterdam
Keestra - Curriculum Vitae