Smaak en distinctie: elites in de achttiende eeuw

In this paper Marcel Proust’s celebrated analysis of taste and distinction among the upper crust portrayed in À la recherche du temps perdu serves as an introduction to Pierre Bourdieu’s La Distinction and to more recent research into contemporary Dutch elites. Finally, the prevailing image of the Dutch Republic as a state dominated by ‘burgers’ is called into question, for i t would seem that Dutch eighteenth-century culture in particular cannot be fully appreciated without taking into account some of its more aristocratic aspects

Spinoza’s Life: 1677–1802

Few issues in the history of early modern philosophy have recently drawn as much attention as Spinoza’s role in the European Enlightenment. Jonathan Israel’s attempts to situate Spinoza at the heart of the Radical Enlightenment, which according to Israel took the lead in the major debates defining the Enlightenmen

'Bayle's Skepticism Revisited'

Current historiography tends to present the Huguenot intellectuals as a relatively isolated group within Dutch society. In this article it is argued that it is vitally important to reconnect the exiled Huguenots, intellectuals as well as entrepreneurs and craftsmen, with their Dutch environment, a society in transition, politically and economically, and far les

Early Modern Philosophical Systems

The occurrence of an entry on early modern philosophical systems in an encyclopaedia of Neo-Latin studies is fraught with complications, if only on account of the gradual disappearance during the early modern period of Latin as the main vehicle of philosophical communication. What is more, historians of philosophy find it difficult to agree on exactly which period should count as ‘early modern’, and finally, experts on the period involved have raised serious doubts concerning the suitability of the notion of a ‘system’ in the historiography of philosophy in the period under review

Hudde en Spinoza: waarom er maar één God is.

In 1666 Johannes Hudde had a brief but important epistolary exchange with the philosopher Spinoza. Hudde had probably been triggered by Spinoza’s demonstration of God’s uniqueness, delivered in his introduction to Cartesianism of 1663. Hudde turned out to be a tenacious correspondent, not easily satisfied and he inspired Spinoza to elucidate his own metaphysics which at the time had not been published yet. Meanwhile, Spinoza had to be careful: he was fully aware of the heterodox nature of his own metaphysics, according to which for instance extension is one of God’s attributes. Hudde on the other hand deserves credit for identifying a major puzzle in Spinoza’s metaphysics, for if God’s attributes are indeed as autonomous as Spinoza wants them to be, how are they able to constitute a single God

Johannes Bredenburg (1643-1691) : een Rotterdamse collegiant in de ban van Spinoza

Dit proefschift probeert een antwoord te geven op de vraag hoe de ideeen van Johannes Bradenburg zich verhouden tot die van Spinoza. Na de '!Veede Wereldoorlog heeft het Spinoza-onderzoek een ware renaissance ondergaan. Inmiddels bestaat een internationaal netwerk van specialisten. Het is hen niet alleen om de systematische interpretatie van Spinoza' s denken te doen en om de intellectuele achtergronden van zijn filosofie, maar ook om de receptie van het spinozisme. Binnen die - uitzonderlijk vijandige - receptiegeschiedenis neemt Johannes Eredenburg een bijzondere plaats in

Spinoza over ware godsdienst. Causaliteit en intelligibiliteit in de Tractatus theologico-politicus

In this paper an attempt is made to argue for the coherence of Spinoza’s insistence on the truthfulness of Christianity. A lack of empirical data on the causal factors responsible for the occurrence of prophecies, the origins of Scripture, and the possibility of obtaining salvation by practicing obedience (to what he considers to be the moral essence of true religion) prohibits Spinoza from claiming mathematical certainty on the truth of revealed religion. The available Scriptural evidence, however, enables the author of the Tractatus theologico-politicus to conclude that we can be morally certain of the truth of Christianity. In view of Spinoza’s assessment of the cognitive possibilities offered by our temporary existence as finite modes this assessment of religion appears to make considerable sense

The early Enlightenment in the Dutch Republic, 1650-1750

This book contains twelve essays by prominent historians from the Netherlands, Belgium and the United States on the early Enlightenment in the Dutch Republic. In the wake of the increased awareness of the importance of this particular period for the European Enlightenment as a whole, they focus on Cartesianism, Spinozism and Empiricism, the three main schools of thought that made up its philosophical profile. The first part of the book highlights the academic infrastructure of the Dutch Republic and the theological response to the Radical Enlightenment