Born in a liberal multi-religious family, Joachim’s career in humanism started at the age of 25, when he served his substitutional mandatory military service (being a recognized conscientious objector) with both the Dutch Humanist Association and the International Humanist and Ethical Union, at the time housed in the same building in Utrecht, Netherlands. After having completed this service, and meanwhile graduated in Philosophy at the University of Amsterdam (cum laude), his academic career began at Nijmegen University where he lectured for several years on professional ethics to a variety of students from social sciences and the humanities. Since the foundation of the University of Humanistic Studies in 1989, he has worked here as a teacher and researcher on philosophy and humanism. Joachim is thoroughly educated in European philosophy and its history, with an accent on phenomenology and hermeneutics.

Joachim Duyndam (PhD in philosophy) is emeritus professor of Humanism and Philosophy at the University of Humanistic Studies in The Netherlands. His research is focused on the significance of exemplars to moral agency. He believes that ‘humanism’ covers traditions of making meaning and applying certain values, embodied by exemplary figures, aiming at enhancing people’s resilience. Historically, humanist traditions have a strong affiliation with human rights. His dissertation Thinking, Passion, Compassion (in Dutch) is a multidisciplinary philosophical-psychological study on empathy. His published articles (in English) include titles such as ‘Hermeneutical Mimesis’, ‘Humanism, Resilience, and the Hermeneutics of Exemplary Figures’, ‘Ideals Today between Wishful Thinking and Realism’, and ‘Empathy and the Potential Body of Imagination’.