The Dutch Republic in the Golden Age The theme of the multilateral meeting between our countries is the golden age. For us Dutch people this theme is a bit uncomfortable. But of course the first thought when we speak about the golden age is the famous or better the notorious 17 th century.
Jan Steen, Vermeer en Rembrandt The painters Rembrandt, Vermeer en Jan Steen. Everybody in the world knows the famous painters of the Dutch Republic which was the World power in that time. But.
the Dutch feel uncomfortable to speak about their glorious past. We don t have heroes. We like to think that everybody is equal. We have expressions like: don t stand out above the crowd. We like to see ourselves as common people. When you wonder around the big cities like Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht and The Hague you will not find a lot of statues of the big heroes from the past.
Johnny Jordaan, Andre Hazes en de dokwerker. We feel more comfortable with the statues of local everyday ordinary people like Andre Hazes, De dokwerker en Johnny Jordaan en tante Leen.
Sarkozy, Berlusconi and the Dutch prime ministers We can t imagine that our prime minister who comes to work on a bicycle everyday is dating the hottest babe in town like Sarkozy or Berlusconi.
. And now back to the 17 th century. The Dutch Republic as a world power was mainly an economical power. The Dutch are traders. We like to sell and make trade like the notorious VOC in the 17 th century which crossed every ocean to make trade or rob the people in almost all profitable cultures in the world.
Pragmatic Dutch The Dutch have a tradition of being tolerant to other cultures, religion and denominations. This is true in a pragmatic way. The pragmatic tolerance is expressed in sayings like: should be possible. But again the tolerance is only there when we can profit from the situation. The end of tolerance is there for example in the multicultural society- if the costs overcome the benefits.
Father of modernity painted by Frans Hals in 1648 The father of modernity Rene Descartes stayed in the Netherlands. In 1628 het settled in Leiden. The influence of Descartes philosophy can t be exaggerated. The fundament of knowledge and science is since the philosophy of Descartes in the thhought of the human beings and not in God or religion. The Dutch liberal environment was the place to work for Descartes and Dutch philosophers and scientists like Johannes en Frederik de Wit, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, Hugo Grotius and of course Baruch de Spinoza.
Baruch de Spinoza Yes, I found some statues of Spinoza. You can find them in The Hague but don t ask someone who is Spinoza. Beside The Hague there are plans to build a monument for Spinoza in Amsterdam. The city of Amsterdam wants to invest in the intellectual heritage of the enlightened philosophy of Spinoza. They think it is good marketing to invest in a monument. Rotterdam has Erasmus of Rotterdam and with a minor investment Amsterdam has Spinoza of Amsterdam.
Spinoza the Enlightened philosopher Spinoza is the most famous Dutch philosopher in the history of the Netherlands from the 17 th century till now. There is even an saying which says: continue like this my son and your name will be Spinza. On the other hand I don not think a lot of Dutch know the name Spinoza. He is neither in the curriculum of history or philosophy itself. Spinoza s Jewish grandparents came from Portugal to live in Amsterdam where they lived as merchants and they could openly practice their Jewish religion.
God is not a person Spinoza criticizes the idea of a personal God which is worshiped in the monotheistic religions. His critics on religion is philosophical. The first philosophical question towards the existence of God is: what is meant with God or in other words: what is the definition of God? For example if you say this cup is God the existence of God is easily given. On the other hand this God does not have much relevance but anyway it exists by its definition. For Spinoza God is a natural power. Everything exists in God. You could compare it to the God of Newton who needed a God to keep everything stable in his universe. So God is an intellectual idea not a religious or ethical concept. Humans are not the crown of creation or the center of creation but just part of nature. Just as Copernicus and later Galileo had explained that the earth wasn t the center of the universe Spinoza took over this idea and told that humans were just ordinary natural beings.
Freedom of speech Spinoza is the apostle of democracy. In his political philosophy he is the patron of ruling the state by the people and not ruled by the monarch. In this way by means of ruling by the people- a nation can be peaceful. The Dutch Republic was one a the few countries which was not a monarchy in Europe in that time. The political philosophers after Spinoza were influenced in their endeavor for liberal, democratic and republican states. The free speech is the fundament for any political system as it was in the classical Greek times were democracy originated.
With his ideas on society and his appeal for tolerance and free speech Spinoza was one of the first philosophers of the Enlightenment. The beliefs of Enlightenment can easily be expressed in the credo think for yourself Of course the Enlightenment was the big influence in the separation between church and state which formed the European nations in the centuries to come.