Laurens Landeweerd (1976) is a philosopher who combines metaphysics, ontology and the philosophy of technology. In science and engineering, such ontologies often lie hidden beneath practical and pragmatic discourse. Landeweerd seeks to translate and render explicit such ontologies both to society (communication) and to science itself (critical self-understanding). Landeweerd is specifically interested in the role of our concepts of change in competing worldviews. Landeweerd’s research focuses on the role of science and technology in our understanding of ourselves and our environment. Science and technology are increasingly intertwined with the human condition and on our views of nature and society, and this needs an ontological understanding of science and technology these in their defining role of both (human) being and our environment. Landeweerd has edited two books and published some 40 peer reviewed papers. Landeweerd studied Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and Culture & Science at Maastricht University. From 2000 to 2002 he worked on the revision of a Dutch history of philosophy (25 Eeuwen (Westerse) Filosofie). Between 2002 and 2008 he worked for Maastricht University on a study of the role of human identity in genomics. Between 2007 and 2014, he worked for the department of biotechnology at TU Delft. From 2010 till now he has been working for Radboud University Nijmegen’s Institute for Science in Society (Science Faculty); between 2014 and 2017 he was senior researcher for Oslo and Akerhus University of Applied Sciences; and from 2017 he has been lecturing for the interdisciplinary bachelor of the Arts Academy in Maastricht. Landeweerd worked on a number of European projects on the ethics and philosophy of biotechnology.
