Projects per year
Personal profile
Quote
“Past and failed innovations tell us as much about innovation as contemporary successful ones”
Research profile
Krist Vaesen is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy of Innovation, at the department Philosophy & Ethics. Krist has worked on a wide range of topics, including technological normativity, the extended mind hypothesis, the epistemology of cognitive artifacts, the cognitive bases of tool use and experimental philosophy. His current research interests include theories of cultural and technological evolution, foundational issues in human origins research, the philosophy of scientific models (e.g., models of innovation), scientific pluralism, science & research policy, and the history of 20th Century Anglo-American philosophy.
Academic background
Krist Vaesen studied bioscience engineering (1998) and philosophy (2003) at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He obtained his doctoral from TU/e (2008) with a philosophical essay on artifacts and norms. He was a post-doctoral researcher in the NWO-program “Things that make us smart: cognitive artifacts and extended minds” (2008-2012), and was awarded an excellence grant from TU/e’s Executive Board for his work on this program. In 2012, he became an assistant professor in philosophy at TU/e. He obtained a Vidi-grant in 2014 for the program “Darwinizing culture: the status of cultural evolutionary theory as a science” (2014-2019). Since 2015, he has been a research fellow at the Human Origins Group, Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University. In 2018, he became an elected member of the Eindhoven Young Academy of Engineering.
He has published in prominent general science journals (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, PLoS ONE), biology journals (Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B), anthropology journals (Evolutionary Anthropology, Current Anthropology), and philosophy journals (Biology & Philosophy, Philosophy of Science). His research has been covered by various national and international media outlets (Times Higher Education, Volkskrant, Radio 1/VPRO, BNR News Radio, Royal Society’s Chemistry World).
External positions
Research fellow, Universiteit Leiden
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Network
Projects
- 1 Finished
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Darwinizing culture: The status of cultural evolutionary theory as a science
15/12/14 → 14/12/19
Project: Research direct
Research Output
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French Neo-positivism and the Logic, Psychology and Sociology of Scientific Discovery
Vaesen, K., 25 Mar 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : HOPOS. XX, XXResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access -
How will we find the elephant in the room? In response to: The elephant in the room: What matters cognitively in cumulative technological culture
Houkes, W. & Vaesen, K., 2020, In : Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 43, e168.Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access -
Is human culture cumulative?
Vaesen, K. & Houkes, W., 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : Current Anthropology. XX, XXResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
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Philosophical Progress and Cumulative Cultural Evolution.
Houkes, W. & Vaesen, K., 2020, Philosophy in the Age of Science. Hermann, J., Hopster, J., Kalf, W. & Klenk, M. (eds.). Rowman & Littlefield InternationalResearch output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter › Academic › peer-review
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Social information use and social information waste
Morin, O., Jacquet, P., Vaesen, K. & Acerbi, A., 2020, (Accepted/In press) In : Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences. XX, XXResearch output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review
Open Access
Datasets
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Dataset: "Inbreeding, Allee effects and stochasticity might be sufficient to account for Neanderthal extinction"
Vaesen, K. (Creator) & Scherjon, F. (Creator), PLoS ONE, 2019
Dataset
Prizes
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NWO Vidi Award : The Darwinisation of culture
Vaesen, Krist (Recipient), 2013
Prize: NWO › Vidi › Scientific
Activities
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Hoe verandert cultuur?
Eva Boon (Organiser) & Krist Vaesen (Organiser)
5 Apr 2019Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Workshop, seminar, course or exhibition › Popular
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Acta Biotheoretica (Journal)
Krist Vaesen (Editorial board member)
2019 → …Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial activity › Scientific
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Why and how to reform current science funding practices
Krist Vaesen (Speaker)
22 Nov 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
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A more egalitarian future
Krist Vaesen (Speaker)
18 Apr 2018Activity: Talk or presentation types › Keynote talk › Scientific
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A partly externalist account of the course of 20th-Century Anglo-American philosophy
Krist Vaesen (Speaker) & J.K. Katzav (Speaker)
24 Oct 2017Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk › Scientific
Courses
Press / Media
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Found in Huelva the trail of the last giant European elephants
14/08/20
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Was it 'bad luck'—not ancient humans—that drove Neanderthals to extinction?
9/12/19
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Models Explore Possible Causes of Neanderthal Extinction
6/12/19
2 items of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Habsburg jaw likely caused by inbreeding, study finds
5/12/19
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment
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Scientists slam Chinese CRISPR babies research after manuscript released
4/12/19
1 item of Media coverage
Press/Media: Expert Comment