Dick Hillenius
Dick Hillenius (1927-87), a biologist, poet and essayist, was an expert on the taxonomy of chameleons, frogs and toads, and was keenly interested in behavioural psychology. His playful, not to say light-hearted treatment of Darwinism (natural selection) and of ethological ideas (territory, aggression, hierarchy) sometimes raised other academics’ eyebrows.
Hillenius’s publications include Tegen het vegetarisme (Against Vegetarianism; 1961), De vreemde eilandbewoner (The Strange Islander; 1967), Het romantisch mechaniek (The Mechanics of Romanticism; 1969) and Een klein apparaat tegen rechtlijnigheid (A Small Machine to Fight Consistency; 1975).