ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ

On 22 October, assistant professor in Theoretical Philosophy and Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) Herman Hendriks passed away at the age of 62. His colleague Janneke van Dis commemorates him with an in memoriam.

We are saddened and touched by the news that our colleague Herman Hendriks passed away. He had been ill for a very long time and it was his express wish to work until the very end. We have great admiration for the way he dealt with his illness and how he was able to talk about it lightheartedly.

Linguistics and philosophy at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam

Herman studied both linguistics and philosophy at the ľ¹Ï¸£ÀûÓ°ÊÓ of Amsterdam. In 1993 he took his PhD on a thesis entitled Studied Flexibility. Categories and Types in Syntax and Semantics, supervised by Prof. Renate Bartsch, Prof. Martin Stokhof and Prof. Jeroen Groenendijk. He then taught for several years at the UvA. His research interests included linguistic topics such as logical semantics of natural language, the representation of non-lexical ambiguity, the principle of compositionality, categorial type logic, the grammar and interpretation of intonation, and naturalistic theories of the evolution of language.

Liberal Arts and Sciences

At LAS, Herman taught in the course The Think Academy, coordinated and supervised LAS theses and assessed final portfolios. He was also active for a long time in the Curriculum Committee, in the Board of Examiners, and as a tutor. By combining his knowledge of philosophy and linguistics with his love for literature, he was able to inspire many students. We also remember him as a critical and creative colleague who tried to improve the interdisciplinary integration techniques that are central to the LAS study program.

Philosophy

At Philosophy, Herman has introduced generations of students to logic and philosophy of language. He was a passionate teacher, who managed to make the material interesting by walking all kinds of side paths. Herman was also involved in the Artificial Intelligence program for many years, where his combined background in linguistics and philosophy came into its own. In the AI program, Herman not only has been a lecturer but also the program coordinator. In recent years he has been active as a working group teacher for the Philosophy for AI course.

We will miss Herman terribly as a teacher and colleague. Our condolences go out to his family, especially Caroline Aartsen en Vera Hendriks.

Daniel Cohnitz, Janneke van Dis, Rosalie Iemhoff and Iris van der Tuin
Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies
School Liberal Arts