Leiden has meant a lot to Japan
Leiden University turns 450 on February 8. I am preparing a city walk for the occasion and came across a Leiden student who is depicted on a Japanese postage stamp. That really is something very special. Would...
Philosophy
Leiden University during the Second World War
This year we celebrate 75 years of freedom. The stamp on the left bears the motto of Leiden University: Libertatis Praesidium. This means: “Bulwark of Freedom”. During the Second World War, this motto came under pressure. The occupying forces wanted the...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (13)
The 'Enlightenment' was a cultural, philosophical, and intellectual movement in Europe that roughly coincided with the 18th century. It stood for the advancement of science and intellectual exchange, the combating of superstition, abuse of law in church and state, and...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (12)
This German philosopher is regarded as the greatest thinker of the 'European Enlightenment'. A man who knew all the monarchs and geniuses in Europe. He practiced countless sciences, but the little he published in the field of philosophy was misunderstood. Remarkable...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (11)
He was of Sephardic Jewish descent. His family had fled Portugal in 1580 to avoid persecution by the Catholics. At his birth in Amsterdam in 1632, he was given the name Baruch (Hebrew for 'the blessed'). He was described as...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (10)
England experienced one of its most turbulent periods in history during the 17th century. Between 1642 and 1651, the English Civil War raged between Parliament on the one hand and the Royalists on the other. A plague epidemic ravaged London in 1665–1666 while the...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (9)
At the age of nineteen, he made a first attempt to build a calculator and help his father with it. In three years, he built fifty prototypes and, in the years that followed, twenty calculators known as 'Pascal's calculator' or 'Pascaline'...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (8)
Long before Desiderius Erasmus in the Netherlands, Renaissance humanists already existed in Italy in the 14th century. Francesco Petrarca (1304–1374) was an Italian scholar, poet, and prose writer. Through his rediscovery of classical texts, particularly those...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (7)
The rise of modern natural science was of decisive importance for the emergence of modern philosophy (1500–1800). Names such as Galileo, Bruno, Kepler, Copernicus, and later Isaac Newton (1643–1727) are indelible. The plague had raged in Europe,...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (6)
In the previous episodes, we were introduced to various Muslim philosophers and the Jewish philosopher Maimonides. In the Christian world, in the early Middle Ages, the Bible was initially tolerated as the sole source of knowledge, and philosophy, as being...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (5)
The philosophers Averroes and Maimonides were both born in Córdoba, Spain. Averroes was probably of Berber descent, while Maimonides was born to Jewish parents. At that time, Córdoba and southern Spain (Andalusia) belonged to the Almohad Caliphate, a Berber Muslim dynasty...
The Owl of Minerva Unraveled
'The Owl of Minerva' received the most votes for the 2019 Provincial Council elections. In the NRC of March 21 and the AD of March 22, the speech (or rather: address) by Thierry Baudet (FVD) was analyzed in its entirety....
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (4)
Western civilization is the heir to Greek civilization: a rational explanation of the world originated here. What is the reason why the rational explanation of the world flourished so greatly in the West? In the early Middle Ages, the Bible was...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (3)
Aristotle (384-322 BC) Aristotle was born in Stagira, Greece. He grew into one of the greatest Western philosophers in history. He was orphaned at a young age. At the age of seventeen, he left for Athens and became a pupil...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (2)
Pythagoras of Samos (582– ca. 507 BC). This philosopher/mathematician became best known for his mathematical theorems (triangle). According to him, numbers constitute the essence of things, for example also in the composition of music. Until the 17th century, music was...
Peculiarities of Western philosophers (1)
What is philosophy and what should you do with it? The German philosopher Schopenhauer had the following definition for this. To philosophize, these are the first two requirements: 'First of all, that one has the courage not to keep a single question to oneself, and...
