Hein van den BergView profile
Assistant Professor
Dr. Hein van den Berg is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam and VU University, affiliated with the Faculty of Humanities and the Capaciteitsgroep Philosophical Tradition in Context . His work focuses on the history of philosophy, particularly Kant's philosophy and its intersections with life sciences, epistemology, and scientific methodology. He has published extensively on topics including Kantian systematicity, the philosophy of biology, and the historical development of scientific thought in the Enlightenment era. Van den Berg’s research explores how eighteenth-century life sciences influenced Kant’s transcendental philosophy, notably in his critique of Jennifer Mensch’s Kant’s Organicism . He also investigates the systematic unity of physics in Kant’s Opus postumum , emphasizing the role of empirical and metaphysical foundations in natural science. His interdisciplinary approach bridges philosophy, history of science, and digital humanities, as seen in projects like GlamMap for visualizing library metadata. Key themes in his work include teleology, scientific hypothesis formation, and the philosophical foundations of psychiatry. Though no awards are explicitly listed, his contributions to Kant studies and the history of life sciences have been recognized through peer-reviewed publications and academic engagements. His research also addresses contemporary debates on animal cognition and the validity of animal models in mental disorder studies.










