Karin Verelst

Karin Verelst is a scientist (Molecular Biology) who turned to history and philosophy of science. Her areas of interest include ancient mathematics, early modern natural philosophy and the foundations of mathematics, the structural characterisation of causal theories using category theory, the logico-algebraic approach to the foundations of quantum mechanics. The focal point in her research is the role metaphysics plays as a structural element in the foundations of philosophical and scientific theories. She therefore explores the strong connections between paradoxes as they appear and are dealt with in ancient philosophy, and their reappearance in early modern natural philosophy, as well as in the foundations of contemporary science and mathematics. The way paradoxes are dealt with sheds light on a theory’s hidden metaphysical assumptions, especially with respect to matter, space, time and causation. Another, but related, area of interest concerns the relevance of problems dealt with in Ancient philosophy for present-day foundational debates. These problems should always be studied from the original sources, not just from later - metaphysically biased - interpretations. A case in point is the "deictic" nature of Zeno's paradoxes, which leads to a straightforward interpretation of all Zenonian paradoxes as variants of the same basic argument, as required by the testimonia, something hitherto not accounted for in the standard literature.

More info about Karin Verelst on the Research and Development PageSome of her papers are available for downloading at the arXives: http://arxiv.org/ and http://philpapers.org/List of publicationsCV

NIAS Felllow 2016-2017

https://www.nias.nl/fellows/year-group-2016-17/verelst-karin

Senior researcher at the interdisciplinary research institute Centrum Leo Apostel (CLEA) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel