From Stevin to Spinoza: An Essay on Philosophy in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic

236 Pages·2001·23.6 MB·English

by  Wiep van Bunge

BRILL'S STUDIES
IN
INTELLECTUAL HISTORY
General Editor
A.J. VANDERJAGT, University of Groningen
Editonal Board
M. COLISH, Oberlin College
J.I. ISRAEL, University College, London
J.D. NORTH, University of Groningen
H.A. OBERMAN, University of Arizona, Tucson
R.H. POPKIN, Washington University, St. Louis-UCLA
VOLUME 103
FROM STEVIN
TO SPINOZA
An Essay on Philosophy in the Seventeenth-Century
Dutch Republic
BY
WIEP VAN BUNGE
_ τ
• S
BRILL
LEIDEN · BOSTON · KÖLN
2001
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufhahme
Bunge, Wiep van:
From Stevin to Spinoza / by Wiep van Bunge. -
Leiden ; Boston ; Köln : Brill, 2001
(Brill's studies in intellectual history ; Vol. 103)
ISBN 90 04-12217-6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is also available
ISSN 0920-8607
ISBN 90 04 12217 6
© Copyright 2001by Koninklijke Brill NV, Uiden, The Netherlands
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Preface ix
Chapter One The Heritage of Humanism ι
ι. Science in Action ι
2. Moral Instruction 9
3. Unity and Freedom 18
4. Academic Philosophy 26
Chapter Two Dutch Cartesianism 34
1. Descartes and the Dutch 34
2. The Rise of Dutch Cartesianism 44
3. From Philosophia naturalis to Physics 54
Chapter Three Cartesian Politics 65
1. The First Stadholderless Age 65
2. Cartesian Hermeneutics 74
3. Republican Politics 83
Chapter Four Spinoza: Friends and Foes 94
1. Spinoza's 'Circle' 94
2. Spinoza's Critics 108
Chapter Five The Fate of Dutch Spinozism 123
1. The Politics of Dutch Spinozism 123
2. The World Bewitched 137
3. Radical Enlightenment 149
Epilogue The European Context of Dutch Cartesianism
and Spinozism 163
Bibliography 171
Index 215

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book brings together much of my research over the last few
years, and many bits and pieces have been published before in some
way or another. Chapter One is partly based on 'Before Philoso
phy: Theory and Practice in the Emerging Dutch Republic, 1580-
1620', in: The European Legacy 4-5 (1999), 1-22. Chapter Two con
tains a lot of material from the (fifth) chapter I wrote for: Willem
Frijhoff en Marijke Spies, met medewerking van Wiep van Bunge
en Natascha Veldhorst, 1650: Bevochten eendracht. Nederlandse cul
tuur in Europese context (Den Haag: SDU, 1999), 281-349. The same
holds for chapter Three, parts of which also go back to my 'Van
Velthuysen, Batelier and Bredenburg on Spinoza's Interpretation
of the Scriptures', in: Paolo Cristofolini (éd.) L'Hérésie spinoziste.
La discussion sur le Tractatus theohgico-politicus, i6jo—i6jj, et la ré
ception immédiate du spinozisme. Actes du Colloque international de
Cortona, 10-14 avril 1991 (Amsterdam-Maarssen: APA University
Press, 1994), 49-65. The second part of chapter Four was pub
lished in a slightly different form as 'The Absurdity of Spinozism:
Spinoza and his First Dutch Critics', in: Intellectual News. Review of
the International Society for Intellectual History 2 (1997), 18-26. Some
parts of chapter Five and of the Epilogue are loosely based on 'Ra
tionaliteit en Verlichting', in: De Achttiende Eeuw 32 (2000), 145-
164 and on a paper first read on April 30, 1999 in Los Angeles
at the conference Matenalist Philosophy, Religious Heresy and Politi
cal Radicalism, 1650—1800, arranged by Margaret C. Jacob, UCLA.
The paragraph on Balthasar Bekker contains a (very brief) sum
mary of four separate publications: 'Balthasar Bekker's Cartesian
Hermeneutics and the Challenge of Spinozism', in: The Bntish Jour
nal for the History of Philosophy 1 (1993), 55-79; 'Balthasar Bekker
on Daniel. An Early Enlightenment Critique of Millenarianism', in:
History of European Ideas 21 (1995), 659-673; 'Eric Wal ten (1663-
1697). An Early Enlightenment Radical in the Dutch Republic', in:
Wiep van Bunge and Wim Klever (eds.) Disguised and Overt Spinozism
around iyoo. Papers Presented at the International Colloquium,
held at Rotterdam, 5-8 October 1994 (Leiden-New York-Köln: E.J.
Brill, 1996), 41-54; Balthasar Bekker, Die bezauberte Welt (1693), Hrsg.
VIII ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Wiep van Bunge (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt: Frommann-Holzboog,
!997)·
Most of my research was made possible by the Netherlands' Or
ganisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Currently, I am in charge
of the Nwo-programme The Early Enlightenment in the Dutch Repub
lic: Cartesianism, Spinozism and Empincism, 1650—1750. Accordingly, I
hope that in the not too distant future, the sequel to this book will be
issued, tentatively entitled From Spinoza to Hemsterhuis. I am indebt
ed to many colleagues, both at home and abroad. A special word
of thanks should go to Henri Krop, Michael and Oriel Petry, and
to Günther Coppens, Eric Jorink, Han van Ruler, Paul Schuurman,
Rienk Vermij and Michiel Wielema, but I owe most to Jacky, Merel
and Joachim to whom I should like to dedicate this book.
Rotterdam, August 2000