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

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

Axiomatic foundations of quantum mechanics revisited: the case for systems

We present an axiomatization of non-relativistic Quantum Mechanics for a system with an arbitrary number of components. The interpretation of our system of axioms is realistic and objective. The EPR paradox and its relation with realism is discussed in this framework. It is shown that there is no contradiction between realism and recent experimental results.Comment: submitted to International Journal of Theoretical Physics, uses Latex, no figure

New remarks on the Cosmological Argument

We present a formal analysis of the Cosmological Argument in its two main forms: that due to Aquinas, and the revised version of the Kalam Cosmological Argument more recently advocated by William Lane Craig. We formulate these two arguments in such a way that each conclusion follows in first-order logic from the corresponding assumptions. Our analysis shows that the conclusion which follows for Aquinas is considerably weaker than what his aims demand. With formalizations that are logically valid in hand, we reinterpret the natural language versions of the premises and conclusions in terms of concepts of causality consistent with (and used in) recent work in cosmology done by physicists. In brief: the Kalam argument commits the fallacy of equivocation in a way that seems beyond repair; two of the premises adopted by Aquinas seem dubious when the terms `cause' and `causality' are interpreted in the context of contemporary empirical science. Thus, while there are no problems with whether the conclusions follow logically from their assumptions, the Kalam argument is not viable, and the Aquinas argument does not imply a caused origination of the universe. The assumptions of the latter are at best less than obvious relative to recent work in the sciences. We conclude with mention of a new argument that makes some positive modifications to an alternative variation on Aquinas by Le Poidevin, which nonetheless seems rather weak.Comment: 12 pages, accepted for publication in International Journal for Philosophy of Religio

Exact Philosophy of Space-Time

Starting from Bunge's (1977) scientific ontology, we expose a materialistic relational theory of space-time, that carries out the program initiated by Leibniz, and provides a protophysical basis consistent with any rigorous formulation of General Relativity. Space-time is constructed from general concepts which are common to any consistent scientific theory and they are interpreted as emergent properties of the greatest assembly of things, namely, the world.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures. Version compatible with the published one. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:gr-qc/971006

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