Herman Johan "Hans" Achterhuis (born September 1, 1942, Hengelo

Hengelo

Hengelo is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands, in the province of Overijssel. The city lies along the motorways A1/E30 and A35 and it has a station for the International Amsterdam – Hannover – Berlin service.-Traffic and transport:...

 http://personenencyclopedie.info/A/Achi/ACHTERHUIS,%20Herman%20Johan/view) is Professor Emeritus in Systematic Philosophy at the University of Twente, The Netherlands and one of the country's foremost philosophers. For now his research concerns particularly social and political philosophy

Political philosophy

Political philosophy is the study of such topics as liberty, justice, property, rights, law, and the enforcement of a legal code by authority: what they are, why they are needed, what, if anything, makes a government legitimate, what rights and freedoms it should protect and why, what form it...

 and philosophy of technology

Philosophy of technology

The philosophy of technology is a philosophical field dedicated to studying the nature of technology and its social effects.- History :Considered under the rubric of the Greek term techne , the philosophy of technology goes to the very roots of Western philosophy.* In his Republic, Plato sees...

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His list of publications shows a great scope (in fields of medical care, labour, third-world-philosophy). In 1967 he took his doctoral degree on Albert Camus

Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a French author, journalist, and key philosopher of the 20th century. In 1949, Camus founded the Group for International Liaisons within the Revolutionary Union Movement, which was opposed to some tendencies of the Surrealist movement of André Breton.Camus was awarded the 1957...

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His latest books handle the topics of utopianism (‘De erfenis van de utopie’, ‘The Legacy of Utopia’) and the tension between morality and politics in relation to the Kosovo War (“Politiek van Goede bedoelingen’, ‘Policy of good intentions’). He is co-author of the volume American Philosophy of Technology; The Empirical Turn. This work includes contributions on Albert Borgmann

Albert Borgmann

Albert Borgmann is an American philosopher, specializing in the philosophy of technology. He was born in Freiburg, Germany, and is a professor of philosophy at the University of Montana.-Philosophy:...

, Hubert Dreyfus

Hubert Dreyfus

Hubert Lederer Dreyfus is an American philosopher. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley....

, Andrew Feenberg

Andrew Feenberg

Andrew Feenberg holds the Canada Research Chair in the Philosophy of Technology in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. His main interests are philosophy of technology, continental philosophy, critique of technology and science and technology studies...

, Donna Haraway

Donna Haraway

Donna J. Haraway is currently a Distinguished Professor Emerita in the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, United States...

, Don Ihde

Don Ihde

Don Ihde is a philosopher of science and technology, and a post-phenomenologist. In 1979 he wrote what is often identified as the first North American work on philosophy of technology, Technics and Praxis. Ihde is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the State University of New York at Stony...

 and Langdon Winner

Langdon Winner

Langdon Winner is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Science and Technology Studies atRensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York since 1990....

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Main thoughts

His ideas add up to a philosophy of things (objects

Object (philosophy)

An object in philosophy is a technical term often used in contrast to the term subject. Consciousness is a state of cognition that includes the subject, which can never be doubted as only it can be the one who doubts, and some object or objects that may or may not have real existence without...

) and a plea for a morality

Morality

Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...

 of machines. Rather than being morally neutral, things guide our behaviour (barriers in the subway forcing us to buy a ticket). This is why they are capable of exerting moral pressure that is much more effective than imposing sanctions or trying to reform the way people think. Utopia has been superseded but the world can still be improved, if we take seriously our moral ties to the machines and devices that surround us.

Publications

• Achterhuis, H.J. (1995) De utopie en haar verschijningsvorm, Amsterdam; Lumiance Lecture.
• Achterhuis, H.J. (1995) The History and Roots of Growth, in: van Dieren, W. (Ed.) Taking Nature into Account: a report to the Club of Rome, New York; Copernicus, Springer-Verlag New York Inc.: 15-27. (translated into Dutch, German, French, Spanish, Italian, and Japanese)
• Achterhuis, H.J. (1996) La responsabilita tra il timore e l'utopia, in: Hottois, G., Pinsart, M.G. (Eds.) Hans Jonas. Natura e responsabilita, Lecce, Italie; Edizioni Milella: 99-110.
• Achterhuis, H.J. e.a. (1997), Van Stoommachine tot cyborg; denken over techniek in de nieuwe wereld, Baarn; Ambo: 7-16.
• Achterhuis, H.J. (1998) De erfenis van de utopie, Baarn; Ambo: 444 pp.
• Achterhuis, H.J. (ed.) (2001), American Philosophy of Technology: the Empirical Turn, Bloomington/Minneapolis: Indiana University Press
• Achterhuis, H.J. (2008), Met alle geweld: Een filosofische zoektocht, Rotterdam; Lemniscaat
• Achterhuis, H.J. (2010), De utopie van de vrije markt, Rotterdam; Lemniscaat