- Etienne Vermeersch
Etienne Vermeersch (
Sint-Michiels -Brugge ,2 May 1934 ) is a Belgian (moral)philosopher ,skeptic ,opinion maker anddebater . He is one of the founding fathers of theabortion andeuthanasia law in Belgium. He is also former Vice-Rector of theGhent University .Vermeersch became an
atheist after five years with theSociety of Jesus (Jesuits). He broke with his belief when he was 25, like most of his colleagues at the time. Later he became a philosophicalmaterialist . In the 1990s there was some commotion in the Belgian media when Vermeersch wrote arational -scientific article entitled 'Why theChristian God cannot exist'.January 2008 Vermeersch was chosen by a hundred prominent Flemish people as the most influential intellectual of Flanders [ [http://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/de-invloedrijkste-intellectuelen-van-vlaanderen/site72-section24-article11901.html#commentspost "The greatest intellectuals of Flanders"] "Knack", 22/01/2008]
Career
Etienne Vermeersch has an MA in
classical philology and inphilosophy . In 1965 he obtained his PhD on the philosophical implications ofinformation theory andcybernetics at Ghent University, Belgium. He became a professor at Ghent University in 1967 and taught introductory courses in philosophy and in thephilosophy of science , as well as courses in 20th-century philosophy and inphilosophical anthropology .He is working on the foundations of the
social sciences , on the philosophical aspects of research into informatics, onartificial intelligence , and on general social and ethical problems, mainly with regard tobioethics ,environmental philosophy , and cultural philosophy.He was a vice rector at Ghent University from 1993 until 1997. He was, among others, a member of the Flemish Board for Scientific Policy, of the governmental board of the Flemish Institute for
Biotechnology , of the Environmental Board ofFlanders , and of the Federal Board for Scientific Policy. He was also president of the Advisory Committee ofBioethics .Etienne Vermeersch has published about 80 articles, about 10 lemmas in the (Flemish) Encyclopaedia of World Literature, many op-ed articles in newspapers and journals, three syllabi, and six books, among which "An Epistemological Introduction to the Science of Man" (1967), "Current Philosophy" (1970), and the bestseller "The Panda's Eyes: An Environmentally Philosophical Essay" (1988). At his retirement the book "From
Antigone toDolly " (1997) was published, an edited volume containing articles spanning his entire career.Professor Vermeersch is also a major Belgian skeptic. He is a founding member of
SKEPP ('Research Society for Critical Evaluation ofPseudoscience and theParanormal '). He has been lecturing and publishing on this topic for more than 40 years.In the beginning of January 2005 he survived a second
heart attack . He remains active as a prominent intellectual inBelgium andThe Netherlands .External links
* [http://www.etiennevermeersch.be Homepage Etienne Vermeersch]
* [http://www.myspace.com/etiennevermeersch Myspace Etienne Vermeersch]
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