Research judged to be "excellent" by international review committee

The three Dutch universities of technology (located in Delft, Eindhoven and Twente) perform excellent research in the area of philosophy and technology. The research of the philosophy departments of these universities can even be considered as internationally leading. This is the conclusion of an international review committee of Qanu (Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities) in 2006.

The international review committee has scrutinized the philosophical research of nine Dutch universities. Of these nine departments, three specialize in the philosophy of science and technology, namely those of Delft, Eindhoven and Twente. The criteria used were quality, relevance, productivity and viability prospects. On a five point scale, the philosophy departments of Delft and Eindhoven gained the maximum score on all four criteria, namely “excellent”. Twente was judged to be “excellent” as well on three of the four criteria, namely relevance, productivity and viability prospects. The quality of the philosophy research in Twente was found to be “very good”.

The review committee consisted of internationally acknowledged philosophers, namely Gordon Graham (University of Aberdeen), Jonathan Dancy (University of Reading / University of Texas), Bas van Fraassen (Princeton University) and John Rogers (University of Keele).

In her general comments the review committee explicitly mentioned the ”innovative work” done in the philosophy of technology, “a relatively new branch of the subject in which Dutch philosophers can claim to be pre-eminent.” About the joint research program of the philosophy departments of Delft and Eindhoven, the committee said: “It is evident that the joint programme has become a major player in the international context of philosophy of technology. Evidence of international participation is plentiful and many publications have appeared in good places. The prime task remaining is to build on this excellence within the relatively new field of phi­losophy of technology to give it a presence within philosophy more broadly.”

Partly as a result of this research visitation, Twente, Delft and Eindhoven have decided to combine their strenghts on the ethics of technology and create the 3TU.Centre for Ethics and Technology.

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