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Our research centres

The Research Institute of the Faculty of Philosophy, Theology, and Religious Studies (PTR) addresses fundamental questions concerning the nature, place and meaning of humans in the world. It covers philosophical, theological and socio-cultural issues, and notably philosophical and religious concepts and world-views of past and present.

Research institute PTR

Website Research Institute PTR

Research centers

The faculty's research is subdivided into six research centers:

  • Center for the History of Philosophy and Science (CHPS)
  • Center for Textual, Historical, and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity (CTHS)
  • Center for Cognition, Culture and Language (CCL)
  • Center for Religion and Contemporary Society (CRCS)
  • Center for Contemporary European Philosophy (CCEP)
  • Radboud Center for Philosophy and Society (RCPS)

Center for the History of Philosophy and Science (CHPS)

The CHPS is the world’s only research center investigating the history of philosophy and of science as intertwined phenomena. It investigates the emergence and development of the rich discipline of natural philosophy from Antiquity to its eventual fragmentation into the modern scientific disciplines in the modern age. It also enquires into today’s relation between philosophy and science.

Center for Textual, Historical, and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity (CTHS)

  • Coordinator: prof. dr. Carly Crouch
  • Department of Textual, Historical, and Systematic Studies of Judaism and Christianity

Center for Cognition, Culture and Language (CCL)

Researchers at CCL focus on interdisciplinary issues at the intersection of cognition, culture and language. The overlapping areas of their research are ‘situated knowledge’ (how are cognitive capacities shaped by cultural norms and linguistic concepts?), ‘ordinary discourse’ (what is the role of pragmatics, convention and context in the interpretation of everyday language?), and ‘ancient texts’ (what do they tell us about the concept of mind in Hebrew and Greek culture?).

Center for Religion and Contemporary Society (CRCS)

The Center for Religion and Contemporary Society (CRCS) studies religion and spirituality in relation to societal cohesion and conflict, death and contingency. It explores these topics within Christianity, Islam, Asian and Indigenous religions and among the religiously non-affiliated, as well as through cross-religious comparative studies. The Center aims for empirically informed theory development on contemporary religion and spirituality, while also taking into account the historical and scriptural origins of present-day religion.

Center for Contemporary European Philosophy (CCEP)

The CCEP, the Netherlands’ only research center concentrating on continental philosophy, contributes to a variety of contemporary currents, including phenomenology, metaphysics, hermeneutics, psychoanalysis, critical theory, political philosophy and virtue ethics. Subjects of particular interest are the impact and critique of modernity and its various symptoms, including secularization and rationalization of society.

Radboud Center for Philosophy and Society (RCPS)

The major questions society currently grapples with demand a new philosophy; a more constructive, involved and approachable one. The Radboud Center for Philosophy and Society (RCPS) contributes to these developments within philosophy and its researchers place themselves at the crossroads between philosophy and society in their quest to obtain fresh, significant insights.

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