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Symposium retirement Rudi te Velde
On November 22, 20204, Rudi te Velde retired as ’Professor by Special Appointment’ for the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. On the occasion of his retirement, Rudi organized a symposium entitled: ’Strange relatives: on the relation between animals and humans’.
The symposium was hosted by the Tilburg School of Catholic Theology (TST) and the Thomas More Foundation on the campus of Tilburg University. The Thomas More Foundation had sponsored the Chair on the Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas at TST since 2016. Rudi had invited three former colleagues and former students to give a talk on animals. The first speaker was Edith Brugmans, emerita professor Catholic Philosophy at Leiden University, who spoke about the view on animals in the works of the author Coetzee. Next, Hugo Wijns, a former student of Rudi’s and now teacher ’philosopy of life’ at a high school, talked about how Peter Singer reads Aquinas. Third, Johan de Jong, assistent professor in Continental Philosophy at Leiden University, discussed Derrida’s view on humans as animals. Finally, Rudi himself give his valedictory lecture on ’the human being as animal rationale in Aquinas’.
