Robert Heeger has been professor of ethics at Utrecht University since
1977, both at the Faculty of Theology and at the Faculty of Philosophy.
Since 1985, he has also been teaching at the Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine. Before he came to Utrecht, he bad worked at Uppsala University
for many years. He has always stayed in close contact with bis Swedish
colleagues, and twice he was a visiting professor at Uppsala University.
With bis eastern-German background, bis roots partly in Russia, bis
thesis on the Italian philosopher Gramsei and bis interest in
Anglo-American analytical philosophy he has a broad international
orientation. It is no wonder, therefore, that he always feit much at
home in the Societas Ethica, the European Society for Research in
Ethics, which he served as its president from 1991 to 1995. Robert
Heeger is primarily a teacher and excels as a discussion partner. With
bis sharp analytical mind and bis great intellectual curiosity he not
only exposes critically the weak points in an argument, but often also
brings up creative suggestions to improve it. Thus he has greatly
influenced bis many students (he co-supervised fourteen doctoral theses)
and bis colleagues, bothin the Netherlands and abroad. Moreover, he was
one of the first moral philosophers in the Netherlands, and even in
Europe, to be involved in environmental ethics and in animal and
veterinary ethics.