I am professor of ethics at the University of Amsterdam and chair of the Capacity group of Philosophy and Public Affairs.
From 2003-2010 I was Socrates-Professor for the Foundations of Humanism at Leiden University. Before, I taught philosophy at the Free University, Berlin, Germany, and at the University of Bremen, Germany.
I studied philosophy at Tübingen, London, Oxford, and Berlin and completed my Ph.D. in 1988 at the Free University Berlin (on theories of meaning in analytic philosophy and hermeneutics). I finished my habilitation in 2001 at the University of Bremen (on the value of privacy).
In 2003/2004 I was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) in Berlin; in November (2011) I was a fellow at the Macquarie University Research Centre for Agency, Value and Ethics, Sydney. In 2015 in November and December I was a research fellow at Melbourne University, Law School. In the spring of 2017, I was a visiting professor at New York University.
In 2016 I was elected a corresponding member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities at Göttingen, Germany. Recently (2022) I’ve been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
I'm a founding member of the Amsterdam Platform for Privacy Research (APPR) and Platform for the Ethics and Politics of Technology (PEPT).
I'm in the team of the ongoing NWO funded project: Political Microtargeting: Safeguarding Public Values.
Since 2009, I have been a co-editor of the European Journal of Philosophy, and I’m a co-editor of the recently founded Privacy Studies Journal.
My board memberships also include the Editorial Board of the book series Essex Studies in Contemporary Critical Theory (Rowman and Littlefield) and the International Advisory Board of the Institute for Social Research, Frankfurt/Germany.
I teach Bachelor and Master courses in ethics and social philosophy, and I also teach a course on Literature and Ethics.
My research fields include theories of freedom and autonomy, theories of privacy, ethical and political questions of the digital society, the ethics of technology, justice and equality, ethics and the good life, and feminist theories.
Some recent publications:
Forthcoming: On Being Human in the Digital World, edited with Valerie Steeves (Ottawa), Cambridge University Press 2024 (with contributions by H. Nissenbaum, F. Pasquale, J. Millar, J. Cohen and others)
Autonomy. An essay on the Life Well-Lived, Cambridge: Polity 2021 (German edition in Autonomie. Ein Versuch über das gelungene Leben, Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2017; Dutch 2018 with Boom Publishers)
"Online Manipulation. Hidden Influences in a Digital World", co-authored with Daniel Susser and Helen Nissenbaum
"Privacy as a Human Right", in: Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society 2017, 2
"Wie wir uns regieren. Soziale Dimensionen des Privaten in der Post-Snowden Ära", in: WestEnd. Neue Zeitschrift für Sozialforschung, Jg 13, Heft1, 2016. S. 103-119
"Privacy and/in the Public Sphere", in: Yearbook for Eastern and Western Philosophy, 2016,1, p 40-60, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2016
Social Dimensions of Privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited with Dorota Mokrosinska, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015
"Are Private Data Tradable Goods", in: Social Dimensions of Privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited with Dorota Mokrosinska, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015
"What is there to lose? Privacy in offline and online friendships" Eurozine Febr 2015
"Autonomy, Self-Knowledge, and Oppression", in: Oshana, M. (ed.), Personal Autonomy and Social Oppression, London: Routledge, 2014
"Desperately seeking Women" Eurozine Febr 2014
"Kantian Autonomy and its social Preconditions: On Axel Honneth's Das Recht der Freiheit", in: Krisis. Tijdschrift voor Aktuele Filosofie, 2013 issue 1
"Privacy and Social Interaction", co-authored with Dorota Mokrosinska, in: Philosophy & Social Criticism October 2013 39: 771-791
Social Dimensions of Privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited with Dorota Mokrosinska, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2015
Handbuch der politischen Philosophie und Sozialphilosophie , herausgegeben mit Stefan Gosepath und Wilfried Hinsch, Berlin, de Gruyter 2008
Von Person zu Person. Zur Moralität persönlicher Beziehungen, herausgegeben mit Axel Honneth, Frankfurt, Suhrkamp 2008
Privacies. Philosophical Evaluations, Stanford University Press, 2004
Autonomy. Problems and Limits (Special Issue of the Philosophical Explorations), Vol V, Nr. 3 October 2002
Quotierung und Gerechtigkeit. Eine moralphilosophische Kontroverse , Frankfurt: Campus 1993
Autonomie. Ein Versuch über das gelungene Leben, Suhrkamp, Berlin 2017; Dutch translation (Boom) 2018; English translation forthcoming 2020 (Polity Press)
Der Wert des Privaten, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 2001; English translation: The Value of Privacy , Polity Press 2005
Die Theorie des Verstehens in Sprachanalyse und Hermeneutik. Untersuchungen am Beispiel M. Dummetts und F.D.E. Schleiermachers, Berlin: Duncker & Humblot 1990
Handbuch Gerechtigkeit, Metzler 2015
Eurozine 2015
Social Dimensions of Privacy: Interdisciplinary Perspectives, edited with Dorota Mokrosinska, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015
Freiheit in Theologie und Philosophie, hg. Martin Laube, Goettingen 2014
Personal Autonomy and Social Oppression, London: Routledge, 2014
Krisis. Tijdschrift voor Aktuele Filosofie, 2013, issue 1
APA Newsletter Philosophy and Law, ed. by Steven Scalet and Christopher Griffin, Vol 13, Fall 2013, Edition in Tribute to Anita L. Allen, 13-17
Philosophy & Social Criticism October 2013 39: 771-791
Eigene Gruende, Muenchen 2012
Politische Vierteljahresschrift, 2012
Die Jagd nach dem Glueck, Wien 2012,
Journal of Political Philosophy, Vol. 20, Issue 1, 71-93, 2012
Philosophy and Social Criticism, Vol. 38, (4-5), 445-455, 2012
Handbuch Angewandte Ethik , hg. v. R. Stoecker, C. Neuhäuser, M.-L. Raters, Stuttgart: Metzler 2012
Die Grenzen des Privaten , hg. v. S. Seubert & P. Niessen, Baden-Baden 2010
Sozialphilosophie und Kritik , hg. v. R.Forst e.a., Frankfurt, Suhrkamp 2009
European Journal of Philosophy , August 2001
Konzeptionen der Gerechtigkeit , Baden Baden: Nomos 1999
Politische Theorien in der Aera der Transformation , Opladen 1996
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 6 1994
Philosophische Rundschau 1 1994 (zu M. Dummett, The Logical Basis of Metaphysics und Frege and Other Philosophers)
Deutsche Zeitschrift für Philosophie 6 1993
Analyse und Kritik 14 1992
2012: Head of the Department of Philosophy
2009: Chair of Ethics and its History, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam; head of the capaciteitsgroep Philosophy and Public Affairs.
2004 - 2010: Socrates-Professor for Philosophical Anthropology and the Foundations of Humanism at the University of Leiden.
1997 - 2009: Associate Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Amsterdam.
1994 - 1997: Assistant Professor ("Hochschulassistentin") of Political Theory and the History of Ideas, Department of Political Science, University of Bremen.
2011: Fellow at the Research Center for Agency, Value and Ethics Macquarie University Sydney, Australia
2003 – 2004: Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Wissenschaftskolleg) Berlin
1998: Visiting Fellow at the Institut fuer die Wissenschaften vom Menschen, Vienna
2012- currently: Member of the Commissie Ethiek of the Facuty of Humanities, UvA
2011- currently: Member of the Board of the Amsterdam Platform for Privacy Research
2010- currently: Member of the Senate of the University of Amsterdam
2010- currently: Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Vienna
2009- currently: Member of the Board of the National Research School in Ethics, The Netherlands
2006- currently: Member of the Board of the Vereniging van Ethici in Nederland
2000- currently: Member of the Board of the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, (ASCA)
2012-2013: Member of the Wetenschappelijk Adviescollege of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research
2011- 2013: Member of the Jury for the Spinozalens
2003, 2005, 2009: Member of an evaluation committee of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) in
Political Studies, Bioethics, British Journal of Sociology, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, Philosophical Explorations, Deutsche Zeitschrift fur Philosophie, Studies in Social Justice, Hypatia, Journal of Political Philosophy, Oesterreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Springer Verlag, Suhrkamp Verlag, Verlag de Gruyter and Oxford University Press
2009- currently: Member of the Editorial Committee of the European Journal of Philosophy
2000-2009: Member of the Editorial Committee of the Journal Philosophical Explorations
Social Dimensions of Privacy (2009-2013)
Socializing Autonomy (2007-2013)