Ghent University and VUB celebrate Leo Apostel's centenary with a two-day event.
On Thursday, September 4, we invite you to the Belvedère of Ghent Book tower for a look back at his life and work
On Friday, September 5, we will highlight the current research at the Center Leo Apostle (CLEA) at the VUB.
Leo Apostle Eternal
Leo Apostel (4 September 1925 - 10 August 1995) was a logician and philosopher. Academically he covered approximately all aspects of philosophy: ranging from logic and philosophy of science to developmental psychology and political philosophy to meaning and atheistic spirituality. There was always the input of the various relevant sciences, which also made him a pioneer of systems theory and other forms of synthetic thinking, such as developing worldviews. This calls for an interdisciplinary approach of which he has always been a great defender.
He was known to the general public as a lecturer and as the author of books such as Broken Order, Freemasonry and Hopelessly Happy (with Jenny Walry).
He died just before his seventieth birthday and left behind an intellectual legacy that continues to live on inside and outside academia.
PROGRAM
4 September 2025 - Ghent (see here for more information)
5 September 2025 - Ixelles
@VUB - Promotional room D.2.01, Pleinlaan 2, Ixelles
- 10:00 Welcome by Karen Francois
- 10:15 Integrating Worldviews: a tool for making sense of life - Francis Heylighen
- 11:00 Coffee break
- 11:15 World Views, Hinges, Pluralism, and the epistemic risk of AI tools - Deniz Sarikaya
- 11:45 How to compare worldviews? - Clement Vidal
- 12:15 Lunch
- 13:30 Building Integrated Worldviews: An endeavor doomed to fail? - Karin Verelst
- 2:00 PM Between interdisciplinary science and pluralistic ethics: The worldviews concept reconsidered - Bart Van Kerkhove
- 2:30 PM Coffee break
- 14:50 A philosophical stance Leo Apostel shared with Albert Einstein: ‘Cosmic Spiritual Feeling’ - Ann Wyverkens
- 15:10 A personal testimony on logic, fallacies, and practical wisdom - Raymonda Verdyck
- 3:30 PM Coffee break
- 15:45 Quantum Statistical Structures in Human Language and Physics - Sandro Sozzo
- 4:30 PM Drinks
