Dick H. Ahles
Dick H. Ahles is an independent researcher in political science, political philosophy and the study of social change.
He studied political science at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with particular attention to political theory, methodology and the empirical study of social and political phenomena. After his academic studies he pursued a professional career in publishing, media, management and digital information services.
His current research returns to questions that originally motivated his study of political science: how social orders arise, why people regard particular institutions and ideas as legitimate, how ideas acquire social power, why societies sometimes remain remarkably stable, and how fundamental social change becomes possible.
His research combines insights from political science, sociology, social psychology and political philosophy. Important intellectual reference points include Norbert Elias’s theory of civilising processes, Karl Popper’s philosophy of science and defence of the open society, and Franz Oppenheimer’s analysis of the state and social power. His thinking also draws on Daniel Dennett’s work on evolution, consciousness and the emergence of understanding, and Douglas Hofstadter’s investigations of cognition, analogy and self-reference. Together, these influences inform his research into institutions, power, socialisation and social change.
His approach to political analysis was shaped by Professor Gijs Kuypers, his academic mentor during his political science studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Kuypers’s finalistic theory of political action provides a framework for understanding politics through the goals actors pursue and the means they employ to achieve them.
This intellectual background also informs his research into artificial intelligence, particularly the relationship between intelligence, competence and understanding, and AI’s role in the production and circulation of ideas. He examines how AI may influence institutions, relations of power and social change, while also questioning established claims about human exceptionalism. Alongside his research publications, he explores these questions in articles on his blog, Ortogonaal.
Ahles is the author of The Art of Revolution: A Formal Scientific Theory of Social Change and related studies within the Open Civitas research programme. He also gives lectures and organises workshops on these topics.
LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dickahles/