Jo Van Cauter over de veronderstelde relatie van #Spinoza met de Quakers

Jo van Cauter is tegenwoordig als lector verbonden aan het Instituut Politieke Wetenschap van de Universiteit Leiden [cf. - cf. ook zijn pagina op academia.edu]. Op woensdag 22 juni 2016 promoveerde hij op

● Jo Van Cauter, Spinoza on History, Christ, and Lights Untamable [Faculteit Letteren en Wijsbegeerte Universiteit Genk, 2016; cf. PDF, door de auteur ook op academia.edu gezet]

In het blog van 5 maart 2018: »Spinoza vijfde evangelist of toch minstens “een Christelijck philosoph”?« schreef ik: “De lezing die Jo Van Cauter in december 2015 in Amsterdam voor de Ver. Het Spinozahuis hield over “Spinoza over openbaring, quakers en innerlijk licht’ [cf. blog], is nooit in de reeks Mededelingen in druk verschenen. Ik vermoed dat veel van de inhoud van die niet gepubliceerde lezing terecht is gekomen in het hoofdstuk van

● Jo Van Cauter, ‘Another dialogue in the ‘Tractatus’: Spinoza on ‘Christ’s Disciples’ and the Religious Society of Friends (Quackers), In: Dan Edelstein & Anton Matytsin (eds.), Let There Be Enlightenment. The Religious and Mystical Sources of Rationality. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2018, pp. 131-152 – books.google ‘- door Van Cauter gepubliceerd op academia.edu.

Abstract: Spinoza’s relation to Quakerism has been the source of scholarly dispute and uncertainty. While there are good reasons to assume Spinoza’s familiarity with Quaker ‘doctrine’ – either through the manifold pamphlets and discussions emerging between Friends and Collegiants around the 1660s, and perhaps even his own personal contact with leaders of the Amsterdam mission – the precise extent of Spinoza’s interest in, and involvement with, Quakerism remains undecided. The goal of this paper is to engage this lacuna. A close reading of the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus not only shows the striking resemblance between Spinoza’s interpretation of true piety and the religious lifestyle advocated by the ‘Children of the Light’, it equally reveals why Quakerism, and Quakerism alone, could have provided Spinoza with perhaps the most ideal test case for determining his own views on the specific relationship between religious freedom and state authority. [cf.]

● Jo Van Cauter, “Wisdom as a Meditation on Life: Spinoza on Bacon and Civil History.” In: British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Volume 24, 2016 - Issue 1, pp.  88-110 [cf. tandfonline – cf. draft op academia.edu - cf. ook PDF op bookSC]. Het artikel begint aldus:

In letter 37 to Johannes Bouwmeester, Spinoza identifies a historiola mentis à la Bacon as an important tool for distinguishing more easily between adequate and inadequate ideas. This paper contends that Spinoza’s advice is to take into account Baconian-style ‘Civil History’ as providing instructive material for contemplating the variety, complexity, and persistency of human passionate behaviour. Specifically, it argues that Baconian civil history forms an integral part of Spinoza’s reflections on provisional morality. Although for Spinoza, philosophical beatitude ultimately demands understanding affects through their first causes – the intuitive perception of things sub specie aeternitatis – in the realm of everyday Spinoza allows for a different, more pragmatic approach to morality. This paper argues at this stage that a philosophical understanding of the mind and its affections is not needed. Spinoza, following Bacon, holds that conduct of practical affairs is particularly improved when those so engaged acquire historical knowledge of the human condition and apply it. Specifically, both authors place special emphasis on a history of men’s characters, actions, and vices as providing the material basis for concrete, directly applicable moral and civil precepts.
This paper argues that Baconian civil history forms an integral – yet overlooked – part of Spinoza’s reflections on provisional morality. As is well known, Spinoza in the Ethics identifies the realization of intuitive knowledge (scientia intuitiva) with the accompanying ‘greatest satisfaction of mind’ (summa acquiescentia) and ‘intellectual love of God’ (amor dei intellectualis) as man’s highest good. Spinoza, however, is aware that life does not await our philosophical deliberations. While we pursue this end, he tells us, ‘it is necessary to live’ (TIE, §17). Spinoza, for this reason, elaborates on the importance of deciding on certain manners and rules of living which, without compromising the philosophical project, help guide our everyday action. This paper contends that it is in the realm of provisional morality that Baconian civil history comes into play. It argues that for Spinoza, an investigation of the mind’s ‘perturbations and distempers’ – the very subject matter of good Baconian civil history – is a crucial requisite for everyday moral philosophy. Spinoza, following Bacon, singles out civil history as the branch of learning particularly capable of providing men with a body of behavioural knowledge, that is, knowledge of the various characters, deeds and vices of men; knowledge particularly useful for everyday practices and considerations.

 

● Jo Van Cauter & Laura Rediehs, Spiritualism and Rationalism in Dutch Collegiant Thought. New Evidence from William Ames's Mysteries of the Kingdom of God (1661), with a Translation. In: Lias, Volume:  40, Issue: 2 (2013), pp. 105-175 [cf.] [Abstract na de afbeelding van William Ames.]

Correctie 6 sept. Frank Mertens was zo vriendelijk mij er per e-mail op te wijzen dat ik hier de afbeelding had van  William Ames ook wel Guilielmus Amesius (1576-1633), een Engelse protestantse theoloog die veel in de Nederl. Republiek verbleef en zich daar mengde in de controverse tussen de contraremonstranten (of preciezen)  en de remonstranten (Arminianen of rekkelijken). Van de quaker William Ames is geen afbeelding bekend.  

Abstract: In 1661, the Quaker William Ames wrote his De Verborgentheden van het Rijcke Godts (Mysteries of the Kingdom of God). This work is mentioned on the title page of a more famous work, Het Licht op den Kandelaar (The Light upon the Candlestick), written in 1662 by the Dutch Collegiant Pieter Balling, a friend of the philosopher Spinoza, and translated into English a year later. Balling’s work is regarded as an important statement of a stage of Collegiant thought, of special interest because of the apparent influences from Spinoza. But this same work was also considered by the Quakers to be a good account of their own theory of knowledge, according to Rufus Jones and Richard Popkin. Some early Quaker sources even listed the author as Ames himself. The confusion resulted from the title page, which references the separate work Mysteries of the Kingdom of God as authored by Ames. The English translation offered here not only makes the work available to English-speaking scholars, but also occasions a new and close comparison of the Mysteries and the Candlestick, examining the concept of the ‘inward light’ in relation to rationalism in circles of Quakers and Collegiants.