Wikipedia

Draft:Vincent Blok

  • Comment: An article requires multiple reliable, third-party or independent sources that write about the subject, see WP:IS. The present article has maybe one - the first one. The remainder is WP:CITEKILL and WP:RESUME. I am pretty sure prof. Blok is notable enough to have a Wikipedia article, but this article does not prove it and does not have the right tone. About tone, see WP:EPSTYLE. The lede section for example is too long. The phrase about one of the most daring attempts seems to be the blurb from one of Blok´s books. That is not neutral and dispassionate. Ruud Buitelaar (talk) 01:59, 11 February 2024 (UTC)


Vincent Blok (born 30 July 1970, in Scheveningen) is professor at the Wageningen University, specialised in philosophy of technology, environmental philosophy and responsible innovation[1], scientific director of the 4TU Centre for Ethics of Technology[2], a collaboration of the four Technical Universities in the Netherlands, and project leader of the AI for Sustainable Food Systems laboratory, that researches the ethical, legal and social aspets (ELSA) of AI[3]. In his research, Blok reflects on the meaning of contemporary disruptive events like digitalisation and global warming for the human condition and its environment from a continental philosophical perspective.[4] He is also member of the boad of the Society for Philosopohy and Technology[5] and associate editor of various academic journals, such as Philosophy & Technology[6], Journal of Responsible Innovation[7] and Philosophy of Management[8]. Blok's philosophy of technology has been described as "One of the most daring attempts to think through the general impact of technology".[9]

Education edit

Blok studied philosophy with a.o Wouter Oudemans, Gerard Visser and Herman Philipse at Leiden University. He wrote his doctoral thesis on the philosophical method of Martin Heidegger and Ernst Jünger, under the supervision of Wouter Oudemans, and obtained his PhD in 2005.[10] From 2006-2010, Blok was CEO of the Louis Bolk Institute, a research institute in the field of sustainable agriculture, nutrition and health care.[11]

Theories and Methods edit

Blok works on the intersection between philosophy of technology and philosophical method. His dissertation, published in 2005, tried to answer the question how philosophers can reflect on the age of technology if their own way of doing philosophy is already affected by technology.[12] To answer this question, he studied the philosophy of technology of Martin Heidegger and Ernst Jünger. In the following years, he wrote a monograph on the philosophy of technology of Ernst Jünger (2017).[13] Subsequently, here wrote a monograph on Heidegger's philosophical method (2019)[14], that "offers an impressive and, in all likelihood, sustainable contribution to the discourse on method in contemporary philosophy".[15] Later he became more critical about Heidegger's conceptualization of the technological world as a reservoir of resources that is present for exploitation, as it overlooks the role of concrete disruptive innovations.[16] At the same time, he was critical about the pure focus on artefacts and practices in many contemporary philosophies of technology. They miss that new artefacts like AI driven applications are embedded in a particular ontological structure of the World. In order to integrate both perspectives, he developed a concept of ecological hermeneutic phenomenology that considers both the physical level of new technologies - the innovation process leading to the emergence of new disruptive technologies - and the meta-physical level of the ontological structure of the World in which these technologies are embedded.[17]

In this context, he also developed a philosophy of innovation to broaden the concept of technology and consider the process-dimension of technological evolution next to the outcome-dimension of innovation.[18] He also opened a philosophical perspective on biomimicry as a new paradigm of sustainable technology[19] in the Anthropocene[20], that contributed to the further development of philosophy of sustainable technology.[21]

Bibliography edit

Books in English edit

- Blok, V. (2017), Ernst Jünger’s Philosophy of Technology. Heidegger and the Poetics of the Anthropocene (Routledge)[13]

- Blok, V. (2019), Heidegger’s Concept of philosophical Method (Routledge)[14]

- Blok, V. (2021), The Critique of Management. Toward a Philosophy and Ethics of Business Management (Routledge)[22]

- Blok, V. (2023), Philosophy of Technology in the Digital Age. The datafication of the World, the homo virtualis, and the capacity of technological innovations to set the World free (Wageningen University)[17]

Books in Dutch edit

- Blok, V. (2005), Rondom de vloedlijn. Filosofie en kunst in het machinale tijdperk. Een confrontatie tussen Heidegger en Jünger (Aspect)[12]

- Blok, V. (2022), Van wereld naar aarde. Filosofische ecologie van een bedreigde planeet (Boom, in Dutch).[23]

Articles edit

Blok published numerous articles that are published open access and available via Academia or Researchgate

External links edit

Personal website

References edit

  1. ^ "prof.dr. V (Vincent) Blok". WUR. 2012-09-04. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  2. ^ "ABOUT US | 4TUEthics". ethicsandtechnology.eu. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  3. ^ Heer, Marloes de. "home". ELSA | AI for Sustainable Food Systems. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  4. ^ Blok, Vincent (2012-09-04). "prof.dr. V (Vincent) Blok". WUR. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  5. ^ "SPT Board – SPT". Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  6. ^ "Philosophy & Technology". Springer. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  7. ^ "Journal of Responsible Innovation".
  8. ^ "Philosophy of Management". SpringerLink. Retrieved 2024-01-06.
  9. ^ Ritter, Martin (2023-04-11). "Towards a Terrestrially Ontological Philosophy of Technology". Foundations of Science. doi:10.1007/s10699-023-09916-x. ISSN 1572-8471.
  10. ^ "Leiden University: https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/2723". {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  11. ^ "About". vincentblok.nl. 2021-07-12. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  12. ^ a b Blok, Vincent (2005). Rondom de Vloedlijn: filosofie en kunst in het machinale tijdperk; een confrontatie tussen Heidegger en Jünger. Soesterberg, NL: Uitg. Aspekt. ISBN 978-90-5911-102-8.
  13. ^ a b Blok, Vincent (2017). Ernst Jünger's Philosophy of Technology: Heidegger and the Poetics of the Anthropocene. Routledge, Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781138737594. Retrieved 2024-01-05. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  14. ^ a b Blok, Vincent (2020). Heidegger's concept of philosophical method: innovating philosophy in the age of global warming. Routledge studies in twentieth-century philosophy. New York London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group. ISBN 978-0-367-41812-0.
  15. ^ Reijers, Wessel (2021-03-01). "Blok, Vincent: Heidegger's concept of philosophical method: innovating philosophy in the age of global warming". Continental Philosophy Review. 54 (1): 99–106. doi:10.1007/s11007-020-09513-w. ISSN 1573-1103.
  16. ^ Blok, Vincent (2023-09-01). "The Ontology of Technology Beyond Anthropocentrism and Determinism: The Role of Technologies in the Constitution of the (post)Anthropocene World". Foundations of Science. 28 (3): 987–1005. doi:10.1007/s10699-022-09829-1. ISSN 1572-8471.
  17. ^ a b Blok, Vincent (2023). Philosophy of technology in the digital age: the datafication of the world, the homo virtualis, and the capacity of technological innovations to set the world free. Wageningen University & Research. ISBN 9789464479126.
  18. ^ Blok, Vincent (2021). "What Is Innovation? Laying the Ground for a Philosophy of Innovation" (PDF). Techne. 25 (1): 72–96.
  19. ^ Blok, Vincent; Gremmen, Bart (2016-04-01). "Ecological Innovation: Biomimicry as a New Way of Thinking and Acting Ecologically". Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics. 29 (2): 203–217. doi:10.1007/s10806-015-9596-1. ISSN 1573-322X.
  20. ^ Blok, Vincent; Philosophy Documentation Center (2017). "Earthing Technology: Toward an Eco-centric Concept of Biomimetic Technologies in the Anthropocene". Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology. 21 (2): 127–149. doi:10.5840/techne201752363. ISSN 2691-5928.
  21. ^ Zwart, Hub (2017-06-08). "From the Nadir of Negativity towards the Cusp of Reconciliation: A Dialectical (Hegelian-Teilhardian) Assessment of the Anthropocenic Challenge". Techné: Research in Philosophy and Technology. doi:10.5840/techne20176565.
  22. ^ Blok, Vincent (2022). The critique of management: toward a philosophy and ethics of business management. New York, NY London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-032-14000-1.
  23. ^ Blok, Vincent (2022). Van wereld naar aarde. Filosofische ecologie van een bedreigde planeet. ISBN 9789024445042.
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