Arnold Geulincx

Arnold Geulincx

Arnold Geulincx ( ˈɣøʏlɪŋks ) (born January 31, 1624 in Antwerp , † November 1669 in Leiden ) was a Flemish-Dutch theologian, logician and philosopher. In addition to the painting industry , he is considered one of the main representatives of occassionalism .

Life

Geulincx studied at the University of Leuven . Among his professors was Wilhelm Philippi, an avowed supporter of Descartes . Philippi was later expelled from the university. In 1646 Geulincx finished his studies, received a teaching position at the pedagogy and in 1652 became dean of the philosophical faculty. On September 16, 1658 he became a doctor of medicine. In the same year the professorship was withdrawn from him, presumably because of his Jansenist convictions and a way of thinking that strayed too far from the basic assumptions of Aristotle . Geulincx went to Leiden in the Netherlands and became a Calvinist there in 1663 under the influence of his friend Abraham Heidanus (or: Heydanus) . Heidanus also took care of the Geulincx professorship at the University of Leiden . From 1662 he taught logic there and in 1665 became an associate professor of philosophy and ethics . He probably died there of the plague.

philosophy

In his philosophy he combines rationalism and mysticism .

In the tradition of René Descartes , he dealt with the philosophy of the mind , developed its theses and founded Occasionalismus . According to this, body and mind are separate areas that only seem to interact with each other, but between which God actually mediates incessantly and the events of both areas are synchronized in such a way that we get the impression of a causal connection.

Geulincx thinking begins with a sharp opposition to naive realism . In addition to the conviction that all our ideas are purely subjective, there is later a developed dualism of body and soul, body and spirit, which he takes over from Descartes. Unlike Descartes, Geulincx denies any causal or causal connection between body and mind. In the parable of clocks, he gives the image of two clocks that are precisely matched to the course of the sun, which function completely independently of one another, but still always display the same time. God, as the Creator, is the cause of this correspondence and thus creates the harmony of mind and body on occasion. Geulincx calls the connection between body and mind, body and soul a " miracle ".

“God, who is the cause of physical and spiritual facts, is in truth the only cause in the universe. No fact contains in itself the ground of any other; the existence of facts depends on God, their sequence and coexistence depend on God too. It is the bottom of everything that is. "

In ontology , Geulincx assumes that if we do not recognize the way things work (the body, the mind), we are not the cause of these phenomena either (quod nescis quomodo fiat, id non facis). Since we do not recognize the causes and modes of action of our own will, this is also not the cause of the external effect. Everything is determined by God.

“On the basis of these considerations I must come to the clear insight that just as little as I can influence the things of this world, they can influence me ... So now I know my position in the world. I am a pure spectator in this world. I'm a spectator in this piece - not a player! "

- Geulincx : ethics

Logically, Geulincx also teaches in his ethics as the highest virtue humility (submission to the will of God), diligence, conscientiousness and justice. These highest virtues thus replace three of the four classic ancient cardinal virtues (wisdom, bravery, prudence, justice).

With regard to the question of rationalism and the relationship to Spinoza, Geulincx seems like no other of his time to have "approached pantheism as closely as possible" (Georges Lyon).

Ludwig Feuerbach on the development of the Cartesian philosophy by Arnold Geulincx : “As with Descartes, the principle of his philosophy is the spirit, the essence of which is thinking, and as with the latter, thinking, which is merely abstraction and the activity of differentiating from the sensual, only that self-relational awareness is. The spirit, says Arnold Geulincx, or I (namely as spirit), because it is one, I am something absolutely different from everything sensuous, my definition of concept and essence is only thinking ; Ego sola cognitione volitioneque definior . '"

In his work “Logica fundamentalis” Geuincx deals with the syllogism and asks the question of the general validity of the modus Darapti , one of the modes of the third figure of the categorical syllogism.

He wrote his works in Latin.

In addition to influencing the painting industry and other philosophers, Geulincx thought had a great impact on the work of Samuel Beckett .

literature

Works in contemporary editions (selection)

• Quaestiones quodlibeticae (Miscellaneous Questions) (1653)
• Logica restituta (1662)
• Logica fundamentalis (1662)
• Methodus inveniendi argumenta (1663)
• Saturnalis (formerly: Quaestiones quodlibeticae) (1664)
• Ethica. De virtute (1665)
• Ethica (1675) - under the pseudonym "Philaretus"
• Physica vera (1688)
• Annotata in Principia philosophiae R. Cartesii (1691)
• Metaphysica vera (1691)
• Ethica (Tract. I and II), Amstel 1696

Other editions (selection)

• Éthique , H. Bah ( transl .). Brepols Publishers, Turnhout 2009, ISBN 978-2-503-52761-1
• JPN Land (Ed.): Opera Philosophica (5 volumes). Nijhoff, The Hague 1891-1893
• De virtute et primis eius proprietatibus, quae vulgo virtutes cardinales vocantur / ethics or about the cardinal virtues . (Translator: Georg Schmitz) Hamburg: Meiner 1948 (Meiner's Philosophical Library; Volume 2)
• C. Verhoeven (Ed.): Van de hoofddeugden. De eerste tuchtverhandeling [De virtute et primus ejus proprietatibus]. Ambo, Baarn, 1986 [These are extracts from Spinoza's ethics, translated into Dutch by Geulincx, first published. by JPN Land, Antwerp 1895]
• Metaphysics . Translated with a Preface and Notes by Martin Wilson. Christoffel Press, Birmingham, ISBN 0-9527723-4-5
• Ethics or About the Cardinal Virtues . Translated by Georg Schmitz. Felix Meiner, Hamburg 1948
• Ethics . With Samuel Beckett's notes. Ed. by Han van Ruler and Anthony Uhlmann. Translated by Martin Wilson. (Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, no. 146). Brill, Bedfordshire 2006, ISBN 90-04-15467-1

Literature (selection)

• Ludwig Feuerbach : History of the modern philosophy from Bacon to Spinoza . 1833, textlog.de
• Eduard Rudolf Grimm: Arnold Geulincx 'Epistemology and Occasionalismus . 1875
• G. Samtleben: Geulincx, a predecessor of Spinoza . 1885
• V. van der Haeghen: Geulincx. Etude sur sa vie, sa philosophy, et ses ouvrages . Ghent 1886
• JPN Country: Arnold Geulincx and his works . In: Mind , 1891; os-XVI: 223-242. oxfordjournals.org (PDF)
• JPN Land: Arnold Geulincx and his philosophy . 1895
• E. Pfleiderer: Arnold Geulincx as the main representative of occasionalist metaphysics and ethics . 1882
• Falckenberg: History of Modern Philosophy . 1895, chap. III
• G. Monchamp: Histoire du Cartesianisme en Belgique . Brussels 1896
• H. Hoffding: History of Modern Philosophy . 1900. Volume I, p. 245.
• Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer: Les antécédants du transcendantalisme Geulincx et Kant . In: Kant Studies , 45, 1953/54, pp. 245-273
• Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer: Occasionalisme et Conditio humana chez Arnold Geulincx . In: Kant Studies , 50, 1958/59, pp. 109–124
• Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer: Three Centuries of Geulincx Research . 1957 [extensive bibliography]
• Karl Durr: The mathematical logic of Arnold Geulincx . Reprinted in: Studium Generale , Volume 18, No. 8 (1965), pp. 20–41. Also in: Knowledge , Volume 8, No. 1, April 1976, pp. 361-368 (on this review by Alonzo Church . In: Journal of Symbolic Logic , Volume 6, No. 3, September 1941, p. 104)
• Herman Jean de Vleeschauwer: Les sources de la penseé d'Arnold Geulincx (1624–1669) . In: Kant Studies , 69, 1978, pp. 378-402
• Gabriel Nuchelmans : Geulincx Containment Theory of Logic . Elsevier, Amsterdam 1988, ISBN 0-444-85698-6 (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
• Steven Nadler (Ed.): Causation in Early Modern Philosophy: Cartesianism, Occasionalism, and Preestablished Harmony . Pennsylvania State, 1993.
• Anthony Uhlmann: A Fragment of a Vitagraph: Hiding and Revealing in Beckett, Geulincx, and Descartes. In: Anthony Uhlmann, Sjef Houppermans, Bruno Clement (eds.): After Beckett / D'apres Beckett . Pp. 341-356 (16). ( Becket today / Beckett aujourd'hui. Volume 14) Rhodopi. ISSN  0927-3131
• Geulincx, Arnold . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 11 : Franciscans - Gibson . London 1910, p. 913 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).

Web links

• Literature by and about Arnold Geulincx in the catalog of the German National Library
• Geulincx's parable of the clock and Ludwig Feuerbach's Geulincx chapter in his history of modern philosophy
• Excerpts from Geulincx Metaphysics
• Han van Ruler, Art. Geulincx , Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• French site about Geulincx
• Arnold Geulincx Resource Site

Individual evidence

1. ^ Geulincx, Arnold . In: Encyclopædia Britannica . 11th edition. tape 11 : Franciscans - Gibson . London 1910, p. 913 (English, full text [ Wikisource ]).