1972: born in the Netherlands.
1990~1992: studied philosophy and physics at the University of Groningen, but did not graduate. 1996: returned to the same university to study economic geography. MSc degree in 2000. 2005: PhD for a thesis that's about two thirds history and philosophy of social science and one third social science.
2007~2008: lecturer on statistics and social science research methods at Leiden University of Applied Sciences.
2008: moved to Japan. 2009~2011: postdoctoral researcher (JSPS) at Keiō University and Nihon University. 2011~2019: researcher at the philosophy department of Nihon University.
Since 2009: freelance English correction and editing of papers written by Japanese (and Chinese) philosophers.
2012~2024: adjunct professor of philosophy at Lakeland University, teaching philosophy, logic, and ethics.
2015: started blogging on philosophy, climate change (from a social science perspective), economics, Buddhism, and other topics at 𝐹=𝑚𝑎.
2022: publication of latest book, A Buddha Land in This World: Philosophy, Utopia, and Radical Buddhism (Punctum Books).
2023: moved to Sado island (Niigata prefecture, Japan).
My philosophical interests are divided over two broad areas. One is in the overlap of (meta-) ethics and social/political philosophy; the other is in the intersection of philosophy of language, metaphysics, and epistemology. Much of my work is affiliated with the analytic and neo-pragmatist traditions in style and content, and much of it is heavily influenced by the philosophies of Donald Davidson and W.V.O. Quine, but I am also strongly interested in Buddhist philosophy.
Before I became a "philosopher" I was an economic geographer. I gradually moved from one discipline to the other, but I remain interested in geography, heterodox economics, and in the other social sciences as well.