Descartes and the Dutch: Early Reactions to Cartesian Philosophy, 1637-1650 (review)

672 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY $224 OCTOBER 1994 Theo Verbeek. Descartes and the Dutch: Early Reactions to Cartesian Philosophy, i637z65o . Journal of the History of Philosophy Monograph Series. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 199e. Pp. x + 168. Cloth, $~9-95. In the late 16aos, Descartes permanently left France to settle in the Netherlands. As he would later tell Mersenne, his main motivation for this change of venue was to be able to concentrate on his work without the "innumerable distractions" that would undoubtedly plague him in Paris. The irony of it all is that what Descartes found in Holland was not peace and quiet, but rather the most difficult and time-consuming (and, at times, petty) disputes that he was to face in his lifetime. The battle over Cartesianism that took place in the Dutch universities and (to a lesser degree) in Dutch intellectual society at large, is the subject of Theo Verbeek's short but enormously scholarly and important book. Verbeek's aim is to lay out the role of the Dutch in the dissemination of Cartesian philosophy, especially in the academic world. Among the Dutch were Descartes 's most fervent followers and his most incensed critics. The seventeenth-century public debate over the virtues and sins of Cartesianism really broke out first in the Netherlands, well before anything serious in France, where official persecution did not begin until after Descartes's death. In Holland, there were authoritative condemnations of Descartes already in the early 164os (Utrecht forbade teaching the "new philosophy" in 164~). By contrast, while Descartes was engaged in a good number of polemics with French opponents (for example, Roberval), there was no official opposition to Descartes in France until the mid-166os. And the University of Paris did not condemn his philosophy until 167~, almost thirty years after the Utrecht judgment! In his preface, Verbeek situates the debate over Cartesianism in the political, social, and theological context of seventeenth-century Holland, focussing in particular on the Remonstrant controversy and its consequences both inside and outside the Calvinist church. He argues that this prima fade theological crisis was not without influence in the early reception of Cartesian philosophy, since Cartesianism was perceived to be as much a threat to national consensus as Arminianism, particularly by the Orthodox Calvinist clerics running the universities, who also happened to be Aristotelians. Verbeek then first considers the controversy that raged in Utrecht in the early 164os. The main protagonists here were Henricus Regius, an avid follower of Descartes who was on the medical faculty of the university but had a proclivity for disputations on theses in physics and metaphysics; Gysbertus Voetius, the fiery professor of theology and new rector of the university, who attacked Regius and Cartesianism in the name of Aristotelian orthodoxy; and Martin School a disciple of Voetius whom the rector enlisted in his campaign. Verbeek presents the major theses, arguments, and counterarguments offered by the combattants, including Descartes's own contributions in his letters to Father Diner and to Voetius. There were a number of crucial philosophical issues at stake, including the ontological status of the soul and its union with the body, proofs for God's existence, the method of doubt and the role of skepticism in BOOK REVIEWS 673 the search for truth, the immortality of the soul, God as self-cause, freedom of the will, and the origin of ideas. But the philosophical issues sometimes took a back seat to personal attacks. At one point, Descartes was facing libel charges for his comments on Voetius's character, and was saved only by the intervention of the French ambassador. This first stage of the war ended with a decree in Utrecht in 1645 against selling or printing books either for or against Descartes. Verbeek next turns his attention to Leiden, where Adriaan Heereboord, professor of logic, took up the fight for Descartes. His main opponents were Jacobus Revius, a theologian and rector of the Statencollege, and Adam Stuart, a professor of philosophy . Heereboord was soon assisted byJohannes de Raey, Regius's former student who was a likely candidate for a chair in medicine or philosophy at Leiden and who was giving private lessons...