The Dutch Legacy: Radical Thinkers of the 17th Century and the Enlightenment

While Spinoza’s impact on the early Enlightenment has always found due attention of historians of philosophy, several 17th-century Dutch thinkers who were active before Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus was published have been largely neglected: in particular Spinoza’s teacher, Franciscus van den Enden (Vrye Politijke Stellingen, 1665), Johan and Pieter de la Court (Consideratien van Staet, 1660, Politike discoursen, 1662), Lodewijk Meyer (Philosophia S. Scripturae Interpres, 1666), the anonymous De Jure Ecclesiasticorum (1665), and Adriaan Koerbagh (Een Bloemhof van allerley lieflijkheyd, 1668, Een Ligt schynende in duystere plaatsen, 1668). The articles of this volume focus on their political philosophy as well as their philosophy of religion in order to assess their contributions to the development of radical movements (republicanism / anti-monarchism, critique of religion, atheism) in the Enlightenment.