PhD defence D.J.W. (Dirk-Jan) Laan

Below is a brief summary of the dissertation: 

The road is nearly always the manner through which we approach the world. Despite this, the physical road as we use it every single day hasn't often been the subject of philosophy. In this research, the central question is how the road shapes our (view of the) world. If the world is unveiled by the road: in which way does this happen? To understand this, the history of the road is uncovered. How did the road of the 18th century change and how did it happen so that we are now not accustomed to muddy cart tracks without rules but rather to tarmac highways? Based on archival research in England, this transformation is traced step by step. Thus, practices we consider to be self-evident in our current road use become thinkable as problems: for example the loss of ownership over the road or the conceptualization of the road as a network. This provides us with the starting points to view our current roads critically. Only when we become conscious of the self-evident aspects in our thinking about the road, can we truly start to think about the way in which the road shapes our world and the possibility for alternatives.