Andreas Kinneging
Encyclopedia
Andreas A.M. Kinneging (February 26, 1962 in Eindhoven) is professor of legal philosophy at the University of Leiden, and a prominent conservative philosopher in The Netherlands.
. He studied political science
at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (currently named Radboud University Nijmegen
), graduating with the highest honours.
. In his years with the Teldersstichting, Kinneging developed into a prolific and influential author on the philosophy of classic liberalism.
In the early 1990s, Kinneging became increasingly dissatisfied with classical liberalism
. He believed that the VVD was intellectually becoming increasingly pedestrian. He also strongly disagreed with the drift toward social-liberalism within the party. Kinneging finally cancelled his membership of the VVD party in 1999.
, and conservative activist Joshua Livestro
.
In 1996 Kinneging moved to the law school of the Leiden University, the oldest and among the most prestigious of Dutch law faculties. Kinneging was quickly promoted to tenured associate professor and accepted a chair in legal philosophy as full professor on Augustus 1, 2004. His fields of expertise are jurisprudence
, political philosophy, ethics, axiology
, deontology and constitutional theory.
(The Whig Interpretation of History), Kinneging rejects the teleological study
of the past.
Confirmed by a wave of recent historical studies (e.g. Jonathan Dewald's European Nobility) Kinneging holds that the nobles, and thus Roman political and social models, were dominant much longer than suspected. The book is especially esteemed for its central cluster of chapters, which analyze the political and social thought of the Romans, Cicero
in particular, in great detail.
, Max Scheler
, Nicolai Hartmann
, Adolf Reinach
, Dietrich von Hildebrand
, Aurel Kolnai
, Edith Stein
and others. Kinneging edited a new edition of Nicolai Hartmann
's Ethics (in three volumes, 2001-2004).
In 2005 he published, in Dutch Geography of Good and Evil, a collection of essays written in the preceding decade.
.
Background
Kinneging was raised in a Catholic family in the Dutch province of ZeelandZeeland
Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...
. He studied political science
Political science
Political Science is a social science discipline concerned with the study of the state, government and politics. Aristotle defined it as the study of the state. It deals extensively with the theory and practice of politics, and the analysis of political systems and political behavior...
at the Catholic University of Nijmegen (currently named Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen
Radboud University Nijmegen is a public university with a strong focus on research in Nijmegen, the Netherlands...
), graduating with the highest honours.
Classical-liberal period
Upon graduation he accepted a position with the Prof.mr. B.M. Teldersstichting, a think-tank affiliated with the liberal party VVDPeople's Party for Freedom and Democracy
The People's Party for Freedom and Democracy is a conservative-liberal political party located in the Netherlands. The VVD supports private enterprise in the Netherlands and is often perceived as an economic liberal party in contrast to the social-liberal Democrats 66 alongside which it sits in...
. In his years with the Teldersstichting, Kinneging developed into a prolific and influential author on the philosophy of classic liberalism.
In the early 1990s, Kinneging became increasingly dissatisfied with classical liberalism
Classical liberalism
Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....
. He believed that the VVD was intellectually becoming increasingly pedestrian. He also strongly disagreed with the drift toward social-liberalism within the party. Kinneging finally cancelled his membership of the VVD party in 1999.
University career
Kinneging returned to the university after briefly working for the Dutch Ministry of Finance. In the late 1980s, he joined the Department of Public Administration of the Leiden University as an assistant professor, where he taught such students as the later member of parliament Ayaan Hirsi AliAyaan Hirsi Ali
Ayaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
, and conservative activist Joshua Livestro
Joshua Livestro
Joshua Livestro is a Dutch columnist and political person. He was a former assistant to EU commissioner Frits Bolkestein....
.
In 1996 Kinneging moved to the law school of the Leiden University, the oldest and among the most prestigious of Dutch law faculties. Kinneging was quickly promoted to tenured associate professor and accepted a chair in legal philosophy as full professor on Augustus 1, 2004. His fields of expertise are jurisprudence
Jurisprudence
Jurisprudence is the theory and philosophy of law. Scholars of jurisprudence, or legal theorists , hope to obtain a deeper understanding of the nature of law, of legal reasoning, legal systems and of legal institutions...
, political philosophy, ethics, axiology
Axiology
Axiology is the philosophical study of value. It is either the collective term for ethics and aesthetics—philosophical fields that depend crucially on notions of value—or the foundation for these fields, and thus similar to value theory and meta-ethics...
, deontology and constitutional theory.
Aristocratic political thought
Kinneging earned his PhD with the highest honors on October 1, 1994 with an English dissertation entitled Aristocracy, Antiquity and History - Classicism in Political Thought, later published by Transaction Publishers. The book criticizes the standard literature on Modernity, by pointing out that remnants of classical wisdom - e.g. the ethics of honor - stayed with us for much longer than commonly thought. The book emphasizes Romans over Greeks. Following the trail of Herbert ButterfieldHerbert Butterfield
Sir Herbert Butterfield was a British historian and philosopher of history who is remembered chiefly for two books—a short volume early in his career entitled The Whig Interpretation of History and his Origins of Modern Science...
(The Whig Interpretation of History), Kinneging rejects the teleological study
Teleological argument
A teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and intelligent design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human...
of the past.
Confirmed by a wave of recent historical studies (e.g. Jonathan Dewald's European Nobility) Kinneging holds that the nobles, and thus Roman political and social models, were dominant much longer than suspected. The book is especially esteemed for its central cluster of chapters, which analyze the political and social thought of the Romans, Cicero
Cicero
Marcus Tullius Cicero , was a Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, political theorist, and Roman constitutionalist. He came from a wealthy municipal family of the equestrian order, and is widely considered one of Rome's greatest orators and prose stylists.He introduced the Romans to the chief...
in particular, in great detail.
Discovery of Conservatism
Writing his dissertation strengthened the process of intellectual 'conversion' that gradually developed Kinneging from a right-wing liberal into a classical conservative, who reaches back for the intellectual traditions of Greco-Roman antiquity and Judeo-Christian ethics. In 1999 Kinneging started a public debate in The Netherlands devoted to the resuscitation of conservatism, which culminated in the founding of the highly successful think-tank and educational group the Edmund Burke Foundation, of which Kinneging became President.Phenomenology of Virtue
The post-dissertation Kinneging focused especially on virtue ethics. He also discovered the school of realist phenomenology characterized by such philosophers as Edmund HusserlEdmund Husserl
Edmund Gustav Albrecht Husserl was a philosopher and mathematician and the founder of the 20th century philosophical school of phenomenology. He broke with the positivist orientation of the science and philosophy of his day, yet he elaborated critiques of historicism and of psychologism in logic...
, Max Scheler
Max Scheler
Max Scheler was a German philosopher known for his work in phenomenology, ethics, and philosophical anthropology...
, Nicolai Hartmann
Nicolai Hartmann
-Biography:Hartmann was born of German descent in Riga, which was then the capital of the Russian province of Livonia, and which is now in Latvia. He studied Medicine at the University of Tartu , then Philosophy in St. Petersburg and at the University of Marburg in Germany, where he took his Ph.D....
, Adolf Reinach
Adolf Reinach
Adolf Bernhard Philipp Reinach , German philosopher, phenomenologist and law theorist.-Life and Works:...
, Dietrich von Hildebrand
Dietrich von Hildebrand
Dietrich von Hildebrand was a German Catholic philosopher and theologian who was called by Pope Pius XII "the 20th Century Doctor of the Church."...
, Aurel Kolnai
Aurel Kolnai
Aurel Thomas Kolnai was a 20th century philosopher and political theorist.-Life:Kolnai was born in Budapest, Hungary to Jewish parents, but moved to Vienna before his twentieth birthday to enter Vienna University, studying under Heinrich Gomperz, Moritz Schlick, Felix Kaufmann, Karl Bühler, and...
, Edith Stein
Edith Stein
Saint Teresia Benedicta of the Cross, sometimes also known as Saint Edith Stein , was a German Roman Catholic philosopher and nun, regarded as a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church...
and others. Kinneging edited a new edition of Nicolai Hartmann
Nicolai Hartmann
-Biography:Hartmann was born of German descent in Riga, which was then the capital of the Russian province of Livonia, and which is now in Latvia. He studied Medicine at the University of Tartu , then Philosophy in St. Petersburg and at the University of Marburg in Germany, where he took his Ph.D....
's Ethics (in three volumes, 2001-2004).
In 2005 he published, in Dutch Geography of Good and Evil, a collection of essays written in the preceding decade.
Positions
Kinneging is president of the Advisory Board of the Edmund Burke Foundation and chairman of the board of trustees of the Center for European RenewalCenter for European Renewal
The Center for European Renewal is a pan-European conservative group based in The Hague, the Netherlands. The Center for European Renewal was founded in the fall of 2007 by a group of mainly European conservatives, including Dutch law professor Andreas Kinneging, the Czech think-tank director Roman...
.