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Frans Hemsterhuis r ! 55 MICHIEL WIELEMA, ERASMUS UNIVERSITY, ROTTERDAM Frans Hemsterhuis: A Philosopher's View of the History of the Dl;ltch Republic / In the English-speaking world, the Dutch record of philosophy in the Netherlands, both philosopher Frans Hemsterhuis (1721-1790) in a national and an international perspective. is still comparatively unknown. Despite the It is becoming clear that the Netherlands, fact that he was the most original Dutch especially in the seventeenth and eighteenth thinker of the eighteenth century, there is centuries, played an extremely important role only one book on him in English, together in the development and transmission of with a few articles. 1 At the moment, his ideas philosophical ideas. 5 Although Dutch are the subject of research both in the philosophers were part and parcel of general Netherlands itself and in Germany, France European movements of thought, their and Italy. In November and December 1990, contribution to philosophy was in many ways two international symposia were held to highly original. commemorate his death two centuries ago. Attention was focused on his philosophical In the case of Hemsterhuis, this contribution achievement as well as on the reception of his concerned such diverse topics as thought in the Netherlands and in Germany. mathematics, astronomy, optics, philosophy, The proceedings of these symposia will soon ethics, politics, history, aesthetics and be published. A Dutch translation of his religion. His ideas in these fields mark him complete works and of some hitherto as a thinker who has left behind naive unpublished letters (he wrote only in French) Enlightenment rationalism, and has opened is being prepared in three volumes. 2 This will up the way for a more synthetic style of enable the Dutch, for the first time, to read thinking, which attracted both Kant and the Hemsterhuis in their own language. Finally, adherents of Sturm und Drang and the Royal Academy intends to prepare a romanticism. 6 His aim was to bring critical edition of his writings to replace the Newtonian mechanical philosophy within the well-known Meyboom edition. 3 wider framework of a Socratic philosophy of man. He opposed the materialistic and There are, therefore, plenty of signs of a naturalistic tendencies of French free­ contemporary revival of interest in thinkers, and made the human individual the Hemsterhuis' thought, a revival which owes centre of his philosophy. Man, according to much to the upsurge of interest in the history him, was a many-faceted being" whose of Dutch philosophy in general which started essential aspirations were of a moral, in the preceding decade. 4 There is a growing aesthetic and religious nature. He was born awareness of the importance of the past with a great number of faculties, which 56 Canadian Journal of Netherlandic Studies needed to be developed and perfected; he was fellow man or God. This craving for union a being characterized by "perfectibility," an with the beloved, which is analogous to the expression first used by Rousseau. His force of attraction in the physical world, can development involved his entering into only be effective if man develops his moral relations both with his fellow men and with faculty,on which human society and religion God, the omnipresent Creator, in order to are based. develop his most important faculty, his moral organ, on whose effective activity human In the second Y.¢riod, Hemsterhuis was society, morality and religion depend. deeply influenc~d by his friendship with Amalia, Princess von Galitzin (1748-1806), Hemsterhuis spent most of his life the wife of the Russian ambassador to the elaborating these ideas. He was born in the Republic. She was an extremely gifted and Frisian town of Franeker as the son of the intelligent woman, eager to be taught famous philologist Tiberius Hemsterhuis. He mathematics and philosophy by the older studied for a while in Leiden, but did not Dutchman, whom she began to see as an take a degree. His main interests in his youth eighteenth-century Socrates. For his part, were mathematics, optics and engineering. In Hemsterhuis found in her the homogeneous 1755, instelild of becoming a military object with which his soul could be united. engineer or a professor of philosophy and Creative forces were unleashed and he began experimental physics, as he had hoped, he to write four beautiful dialogues which are entered the service of the Council of State, among the best writings that Dutch one of the most important judiciary and philosophy has produced: Sophyle ou de la advisory bodies of the Republic, where he Philosophie (1778), Aristee ou de la Divinite performed the duty of clerk until his (1779),8 Simon ou -des facultes de l'ame retirement in 1780. This gave him the (1779) and Alexis ou de l'age d'or (1787).9 In opportunity to become well acquainted with these dialogues the central concept of Dutch politics and affairs of state without Hemsterhuis' thought, the synthesis of becoming actually involved in them. Newtonian and Socratic philosophy, is applied to a number of traditional topics such He was an unambitious and quiet man, as the problem of certainty, the nature of devoting his spare time to philosophy, evil, the conception of beauty, the numismatics, art and literature. In his career significance of history. Besides these, their as a philosopher, two distinct periods can be friendship has left behind a great number of discerned, separated by the year 1775. In the letters, in which matters of mathematics, first, he wrote a number of philosophical science, philosophy, art, literature, history "letters," of which the Lettre sur la Sculpture and politics are widely discussed. Most of (1769), the Lettre sur les Desirs (1770) and these letters, which can be found in the Royal the Lettre sur l'homme et ses rapports (1772) Library· at The Hague and the University are the most important. 7 In these his aim is to Library at Munster, to which city the show that man is not simply a self-centred Priricess moved in 1779, are still unpublished physical being, as the materialists would have and have not even been systematically him, but that he is motivated by the desire to studied. They are a veritable treasure-house become one with either an object of art, his of information for anyone interested in Dutch Frans Hemsterhuis: a philosopher's view of the history of the Dutch Republic 57 as well as general European intellectual life Hemsterhuis had seen some of the worst in the eighteenth century. times in the history of the Dutch Republic since the disastrous year 1672. Until now, Hemsterhuis has been considered primarily as a systematic philosopher of the It is hardly surprising then, that in the years human soul and of art, history and religion. 1780-1787 he was fully occupied with But it is clear both from some of his minor political reflections. The military and writings and from his correspondence, that economic decline of the Republic led him to he also took a great interest in the history and contemplate the stark contrast between its politics of his own country. Although he had former greatness and its present humility. He no political ambitions of his own, matters of decided to write a philosophical history of state attracted his attention not only on this unique state, which according to him, in account of his professional occupation, but the course of its history, exhibited all also because they served as empirical possible modifications of which states are illustrations of his philosophical doctrines. In susceptible. Unfortunately he was only able good Enlightenment fashion, political history to write a philosophical introduction; this to him was philosophy teaching by example. fragment is known today as Reflexions sur la As a consequence, his comments on Dutch Repub/ique des Provinces-Unies . It is history and politics contain some highly supplemented by a small treatise called original elements which set them off from the Ebauche d'un avis du conseil d'etat, 11 which views of empirical historians or professional contains some very interesting historical politicians. Together they constitute a remarks, and by a large number of important philosopher's view of the history of the letters, which are for the most part Dutch Republic. unpublished. From these diverse sources it will be possible to derive a relatively Fortunately for us, Hemsterhuis' mature complete view of Hemsterhuis' reflections on years as a philosopher were spent during a the Republic. period of great political upheaval in the Republic.1O There was plenty of material to Hemsterhuis' political philosophy can be contemplate. For example, there was the war situated between the opposing views of with England (1780-1784). The Republic Enlightenment and romanticism, between proved weak, and suffered blow after blow, mechanism and organicism. As in his general causing great domestic tensions. In philosophy, his aim was to synthesize September 1781, Van der Capellen Newton and Socrates. From Newtonianism distributed his notorious pamphlet calling on derive the mechanical metaphors that he all citizens to carry arms and defend their constantly used in describing the nature and rights against the autocratic policy of the workings of state-machines. The distinction stadholder. In the years to come, the division between the organic whole of the individual between the Patriots and Orangists led to a and the mechanical aggregate of the state is full-scale civil war which brought the one of the most fundamental in his Republic to the edge of destruction. In philosophy. To him, states were artificial September 1787, the old regime was restored constructions of the human intellect, used with the help of a Prussian army. only to maintain the degenerate body of law 58 Canadian JouFnal of Netherlandic Studies that protects private property against theft to nature, but a long process in which the and violation.
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