Welcome to the homepage of Maarten Franssen
Associate Professor
Philosophy Section, Delft University of Technology
Jaffalaan 5
2628 BX Delft, The Netherlands
phone +31-15-2785795
fax +31-15-2786233
e-mail m.p.m.franssen@tbm.tudelft.nl
education
Two souls dwell, alas!, in my breast. Although I have no reason to quote this as a lament.
I studied Physics at the University of Amsterdam from 1974 to 1981 and History at the same university from 1979 to 1989. In physics I specialized in theoretical physics and wrote a master's thesis on the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. In history my major topic was eighteenth-century history of ideas. I received a cum laude degree in both studies.
In the 1980s I became a collaborator of Professor Jon Dorling, chair of Philosophy of Science at the University of Amsterdam. After an interlude spent on a brief career in publishing, I received my PhD in philosophy from the University of Amsterdam in 1997, for a thesis on the problem of methodological individualism in the social sciences.
I joined the Philosophy Section in Delft in 1996.
research interests
[under revision]
some publications
'The normativity of artefacts’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
37 (2006), 42-57.
‘Arrow’s theorem, multi-criteria decision problems and multi-attribute design problems in engineering design’, Research in Engineering Design
16 (2005), 42-56.
‘On rationality in engineering design’ (jointly with Louis Bucciarelli), Journal of Mechanical Design
126 (2004), 945-949.
‘Technological regime as a key concept in explaining technical inertia and change: a critical analysis’, International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management
2 (2002), 455-470.
‘The not-so-trivial truth of methodological individualism’, paper presented at the 20th World Congress of Philosophy at Boston, 16-20 August 1998.
‘Constrained maximization reconsidered - an elaboration and critique of Gauthier’s modelling of rational cooperation in a single prisoner’s dilemma’, Synthese 101 (1994), 249-272.
‘Did King Alfonso of Castile really want to advise God against the Ptolemaic system? The legend in history’, Studies in History and Philosophy of Science
24 (1993), 313-325.
‘The ocular harpsichord of Louis-Bertrand Castel. The science and aesthetics of an eighteenth-century cause célèbre’, Tractrix. Yearbook for the History of Science, Medicine, Technology and Mathematics
3 (1991), 15-77.
teaching
I have developed and currently teach or have taught courses on:
- philosophy (methodology) of science and technology
- reasoning, argumentation, critical thinking
- technology as human action and social phenomenon
- philosophy of technology
- decision making
- environmental philosophy
links
Research project The Dual Nature of Technical Artifacts
Research projects Next Generation Infrastructures, project I and project II
PhD project (Re)Design of Hybrid (Social/Technical) Systems
