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.
Since 2012: adjunct professor of philosophy at Lakeland University, teaching philosophy, logic, and ethics. Since 2024 online.
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, 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 (but not all) of my work is most closely affiliated with the analytic tradition both 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 interested in Buddhist, Chinese, and continental 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.