Maria Bartels

Maria Bartels is a Dutch philosopher. She first studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris, musicology and Italian at the University of Utrecht and music at the Royal Conservatory of La Hague. This was followed by her studies of philosophy at the University of Utrecht, specializing in Neoplatonic philosophy and Renaissance aesthetics. In 1993, she received the Dante Alighieri Prize for foreign writers and scientists for her thesis about the Italian Renaissance philosopher Marsilio Ficino (Contemplation and Creation: the relationship between love and beauty). 

While teaching for many years Dutch to foreigners at the University of Utrecht and private institutes, she was active as well in the cultural world (radio programme for the broadcasting station VPRO, organization of the festival of early music, exhibitions, cultural exchanges as part of the ‘Erasmus’ project). Since 2000 she is working as an independent philosopher from her own philosophical centre Phaidros, giving lectures and workshops and accompanying people in their life and work as a coach. She has collaborated with a wide variety of companies and NGO organizations, education, art and health institutions in the Netherlands and abroad. She is the author of two publications: Zijn in ontmoeting (Being in encounter, Driebergen, 2000) and Zin in kwaliteit (Sense of Quality, Driebergen, 2005). 

Current as of July 2018