 He matriculated at the Free University of Brussels in 1964 and in 1967 became assistant to Professor Pierre Verstraeten.His graduation dissertation dealt with the problem of unity in Kant's thought in the Critique of Judgment ("L’unité problématique du kantisme dans la Critique de la force de juger").In 1971, he became a junior associate (""aspirant"") at the Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research.