Philipp Wilhelm van Heusde

Philipp Wilhelm van Heusde

Philipp Wilhelm van Heusde (also: Philip Willem van Heusden, Philippe Guillaume van Heusde ; born June 17, 1778 in Rotterdam , † July 28, 1839 in Geneva ) was a Dutch philosopher, historian, philologist, librarian and rhetorician.

Life

Origin and first years of life

Van Heusde came from a respected Rotterdam family who had their roots in The Hague. His father Cornelis van Heusde (born May 14, 1737 in Rotterdam; † July 23, 1809 ibid) came from the merchant family of Johannes van Heusde (born March 22, 1698 in Rotterdam; † July 4, 1766 ibid) and his wife Maria Blom (~ May 22, 1704 in Delft; † May 17, 1760 in Rotterdam), the daughter of Dr. Cornelius Blom and the Elisabeth Geus. His father received his doctorate in law from the University of Leiden on October 22, 1761 with the treatise de Donatione ob liberos post eam susceptos non revocanda . From 1765 to 1782 he was in charge of the orphanage in Rotterdam, was a commissioner for ships in Rotterdam and in 1787 was a member of the Rotterdam city council.

His mother Katharina Josina Wybo (born February 16, 1743 in Middelburg; † January 28, 1807) was the daughter of Dr. Bartholomäus Wybo and his wife Petronella la Croix. She is portrayed as an educated and enterprising person who, in her development, coped with everyday life, adhering to the values ​​of church life. As the fourth of five children, Heusde was brought up in an environment that was religiously supernatural . In this way, he gained insights and experiences in his hometown, which developed and shaped his character and way of life. Attending the school in his birthplace made him want to turn to scientific subjects.

High school education

The father supported his son by sending him to Delft for further education and by ensuring that he could attend the Erasmusgymnasium in Rotterdam. Here he found a variety of stimuli in class, he learned the Greek language, studied Latin poetry and the writings of classical authors. It was above all Johann Adam Nodell (1754–1814) who was able to give him a feeling for the elegance and beauty of classicism. After completing his training, Van Heusde left the school on December 21, 1794 with the speech De Claudio Civili , but remained in Rotterdam, where he continued his training in the library of Nodell and familiarized himself with the writings of Plato and Frans Hemsterhuis . The writings of enlightened thinkers such as Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau were also the subject of his research.

He had developed a particular fondness for the myths, which fascinated him in his soulful imagination. It was also Nodell who advised him in 1797 to move to Amsterdam to the Athenaeum Illustre there. Because his father wanted him to devote himself to law, he attended Hendrik Constantijn Cras' lectures in law here. Heusde also dealt with physical and astronomical topics with Jean Henri van Swinden and finally found an excellent expert on classical authors, especially in Daniel Wyttenbach . In Amsterdam he also dealt with the French and German philosophers. Especially the writings of Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi aroused in him the urge to organize the arts and sciences in a philosophical and encyclopedic manner.

Education

Heusde followed Wyttenbach when he entered the registry of the University of Leiden on September 18, 1800 . In Leiden, following his father's request, he first followed lectures at the law faculty with Dionysius Godefridus van der Keessel (1738–1816). In order to pursue his own inclinations, he also attended the lectures on the history of Adrian Kluit (1735-1807) and the philosophical lectures on literature by Matthijs Siegenbeek (1774-1854). During his university education he also spent two months in Paris, where he was able to examine many Italian works of art. During this time he wrote his speech De pulchri amore , in which he explained his thoughts on the sense of beauty.

As early as 1801 he had received an order from the curators of the Leiden University to evaluate David Ruhnken's manuscripts in the Leiden University Library . They contained Greek scholias on Plato, which Ruhnken had already edited but could no longer publish. The result of his studies was a treatise Specimen criticum de Platone (freely translated: A special criticism of Plato ), which was particularly praised by his Leiden university professor Wyttenbach. The writing also found dignified recognition in the world of scholars through the philological librarian Christian Gottlob Heyne , the Utrecht theology professor Gisbert Bonnet and the Joachimsthal philologist Philipp Karl Buttmann (1764–1829). For this work he is also said to have received his doctorate in philosophical literature. On September 14, 1803 he received his doctorate in law with the thesis Theses juris and received a recommendation for the Utrecht University from his teacher Wyttenbach.

University teaching time

For the curators of the University of Utrecht , this suggestion was not inconvenient, because the professors there, Christoph Saxe and Carolus Segaar, were barely able to cope with the demands of university operations at that time as a result of their old age. The curators saw in Van Heusde a person who would be an excellent complement to the two veterans of the Utrecht University. They therefore appointed him professor on October 10, 1803. Shortly after his appointment, Segaar died, whose post as professor of the Greek language he took over, and he also became professor of history, archeology and rhetoric, which he took up on January 26, 1804 with the treatise De antiqua eloquentia cum recentiore comparata . After Saxe died in 1806, he also took over his full chair and was elected rector of the Alma Mater for the first time that year . He resigned this office in 1807 with the speech de vi et efficacia quam ad exeolendas recentiores gentes antiquae habuerient literae and handed it over to Johannes Theodorus Rossijn .

In his time, Heusde was a well-respected personality across the national borders of the Netherlands, who was also extremely popular with his students. He received three offers for a chair at the University of Leiden. He received the first appointment in 1807 to replace Johann Luzac (1746-1807), the second in 1820, when he was offered Wyttenbach's chair, and when Elias Annes Borger (1784-1820) died, he received the third appointment. He turned down all these offers and became the representative figurehead of the Utrecht University. In 1818, after the death of Sebald Rau, he became librarian at the Utrecht University Library, which found a new home in the old palace of King Ludwig in 1820. In this capacity he published a catalog of the same in 1835. He became a curator of the university and a knight of the Dutch lion . He was also a member of many foreign and domestic learned societies in literature and history.

On November 7, 1803, he was a moderating member of the Society of Arts and Sciences in Utrecht, which he chaired on June 19, 1805. On July 3, 1803 he was a member of the Society for Dutch Literature and Literary Studies in Leiden (Maatschappij der Nederlandsche Letterkunde), on October 22, 1806 he became a member of the Royal Zealand Society of Sciences in Middelburg, on May 21, 1808 he became a member of the Dutch Society of Sciences in Haarlem, on July 6, 1808 a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences , in October 1811 he became a member of the Latin Society Jena, in July 1812 a member of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences , on July 17, 1816 a member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences , on November 25th 1826 member of the Royal Society of Sciences in Göttingen , on December 10th 1832 member of the Historical-Theological Society in Leipzig, on January 30th 1834 member of the Royal Society for Nordic Archeology in Copenhagen, on July 22, 1837 Member of the Académie des sciences morales et politiques , in November 1837 honorary member of the Archaeological Society of Athens and on March 14, 1839 member of the Thuringian-Saxon Association for the Study of Patriotic Antiquity. He experienced his second term as rector in 1817, which he ended in 1818 with the speech de pulchri amore .

Author activity

In 1827 van Heusde had published nothing but his specimen, his commemorative speech on Cornelis Willem de Rhoer and his academic speeches. He had also written a small pamphlet, Diatribe in civitates antiquas , which was to be found in the third grade memoirs of the Royal Institute of the Netherlands and was intended to serve as a guide for his students. In 1827 Van Heusde published the first volume of his Initia philosophiae platonicae . This work, which was supposed to introduce the study of Plato, appeared at intervals, and according to the saying of Horace "nonum prematur in annum" it was not completed until 1837. Meanwhile he was preoccupied with the great affair of the nineteenth century - that is what he later called public instruction lively - while at the same time he tried more and more to penetrate Plato's thoughts. He thought it was his job to publish something about teaching, namely his Brieven over den aard en de strekking van't hoeger Onderwys ( letters about the nature and purpose of higher education ), which were translated twice into German. Almost immediately afterwards, in 1828, he made a trip to Switzerland. When a new edition of the letters mentioned became necessary, he therefore also added the description of his travel impressions.

When one of the curators of the University of Utrecht, who had been very dear to him, died in 1829, he wrote a note about him, as he had earlier about De Rhoer, and combined both writings under the title "lets over de Rhoer en Beaufort" . When the students of the Utrecht University took up arms to defend their homeland in 1831, the hunter company that consisted of them and in which one of van Heusde's son served was camped in Hilvarenbeek, North Brabant. Van Heusde went there to kindle the courage of the young people. On their return home from the ten-day campaign, he met them with two of his colleagues whom the Academic Senate had instructed to congratulate them. The speeches he made on the occasion appeared together. In 1836 the University of Utrecht celebrated its anniversary. As the acting rector of the college, Jodocus Heringa was supposed to give Eliza's zoon an occasional speech. However, since he fell ill, Heusde was commissioned to give the speech that dealt in Latin with the relationship between the sciences and the arts under the title de communi artium doctrinarumque vinculo .

Van Heusde then began a work that was to contain the result of many years of studies, of which only a part was published. This work was called De Socratische School of wysgeerte voor de negentiende eeuw (also published in German under the title: Die Socratische Schule or instructions for the nineteenth century. ). Three volumes have appeared, the fourth appeared after his death and was later controversial. In this Socratic school , Van Heusde sought to draft an encyclopedia plan based on the principles of Platonic philosophy. The first two volumes cover the arts and sciences and delicately deal with their communal relationships and purposes. The third volume contained a philosophy of language, the fourth metaphysics. While he was doing it, he also published letters on the method of studying philosophy in the Netherlands. They appeared under the title Over de Beoefening der wysgeerte vooral in onze tyden en in ons vaderland . His last work dealt with the great triumvity of the ancient world, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle and was entitled Principum philosophorum characterismi . It was only published after his son died.

End of life

With increasing age van Heusde also developed health problems. He tried to cure this on summer trips to Switzerland. On his last trip, he was held up for a day in Basel and a day in Bern by an attack of fever. In Geneva he dined in an overheated room in an inn and later sat on the balcony to cool off. This led to another illness, he felt a severe stitch. Before he could be helped, he passed away with his family who had traveled with him. His body was quietly transferred to the Netherlands and buried in the family grave of the village of De Bilt on August 14 of the same year .

meaning

As a historian of the philosophical classics, van Heusde was neither the creator of a new philosophical system nor a follower of another. He didn't think much of polemical pamphlets, but nevertheless he represented the philosophical views of Johann Gottfried Herder and Johann Gottlieb Fichte , while the views of Immanuel Kant seemed too speculative to him. His main concern was Plato, with which he went down in the history books as a Platonist who understood the Socratic school as the philosophy for the nineteenth century. In his lectures Heusde had practiced a method that was based on the gradual development of humanity. From his traditional understanding, he reflected on the Socratic school as the philosophy for the nineteenth century.

For philosophy he demanded good common sense and principles that did not go against theology, and thought the classics, namely Plato, were most suitable for the Dutch development of philosophy, so that the more recent speculations, which only led to inconsistencies, had no ground in Holland could find. He particularly encouraged the study of classical philosophy in Holland. A staunch opponent of Heusde's philosophical thought was Jacob Nieuwenhuis (1777-1857), who denied Heusde's common sense philosophy . Still, the number of those who had gone through his school was large. Therefore he also had an effect through his students. His son Johann Adolf Karl van Heusde , Jan Gerrit Hulleman (1815–1862), Arnoldus Ekker (1799–1879) and Antonie van Goudoever (1785–1857) should be mentioned here in the field of philosophy .

He also laid essential foundations in theological field and is seen as the source of ideas for the Groningen theological school of the 19th century. From his students, who later engaged in theology, Barthold Reinier de Geer (1791–1840), Louis Gerlach Pareau (1800–1866), Wilhelm Muurling (1805–1882), Johann Frederik van Oordt (1794–1852), Syvert Hendrik Koorders (1796–1866), Herman Gerrit Jacobus van Doesburgh (1800–1874) and Petrus Hermanus Hugenholtz (1796–1871) are mentioned.

family

Heusde married Charlotte Marie Anna Pompeijra (born August 17, 1767 in Hulst; † July 7, 1850 in Utrecht) in Leiden on June 19, 1806. She was the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel Jacques Pompeyra (born May 1, 1729 in Rotterdam; † April 8, 1795 ibid) and Aaltje (Alida) Heeres († January 12, 1807 in Rotterdam) and came from a Huguenot family. Three daughters and three sons are known of his children. Cornelia Catharina van Heusde (around June 1809 - September 16, 1810 in Leiden), Johann Adolf Karl van Heusde (born May 26, 1812 in Utrecht, † November 16, 1878 in The Hague), Charles Willem van Heusde (born August 6, 1812 in Utrecht), 1814 - November 5, 1878 in Bloemendaal), Andreas Cornelis van Heusde (* March 21, 1816 in Utrecht; † February 24, 1899 in Utrecht), Cornelia Charlotta van Heusde (* November 7, 1817 in Utrecht; † July 28 1895 in Utrecht), who was married to Professor Jacques Adolphe Charles Rovers on March 16, 1853 in Groningen , and Adelaide Jacqueline van Heusde (born February 2, 1822 in Utrecht; † March 6, 1909 Utrecht).

Works (selection)

• Specimen criticum in Platonem. 1803 ( online )
• Oratio de antiqua eloquentia cum recentiore comparata. 1805 ( online )
• Diatribe in civitates antiquas. 1817 ( online )
• Disputatio inauguralis de antiqui juris principiis in excolenda jurisprudentia romana constanter servatis. 1817
• Oratio de pulcri amore. 1819
• CW de Rhoer, kenschetst, bijzonder than divorcee. 1821
• Brieven over den aard en de strekking van hooger onderwys. 1829 ( online ), 1835 ( online ), 1857 ( online , online ), In German: Letters about the nature and purpose of higher education. 1830 ( online )
• Herinneringen aan Willem Hendrik de Beaufort, at the occasion of the opening of the algemeene certification of the Utrecht Genootschap on June 26, 1829. 1829
• Aanspraken aan de vrijwillige jagers, students of the Utrechtsche Hoogeschool. 1831 ( online )
• Bibliothecae Rheno-Trajectinae Catalogus. 1835 1st vol. ( Online , online ); 1834 2nd vol. ( Online , online )
• De Socratische School of wijsgeerte voor de negentiende eeuw. 1834, 1st vol., ( Online ); 1835 2nd vol., ( Online ); 1. u. 2nd volume ( online ); 1837 3rd u. 4th volume ( online ); In German: The Socratische Schule or, Philosophy for the Nineteenth Century. Verlag Ferdinand Enke, Erlangen, 1838 Vols. 1-2 ( online ); 1st volume ( online ); 2nd volume ( online ); 1. u. 2nd volume ( online );
• Initia philosophiae platonicae. Johann Altheer, Utrecht, 1827, 1st volume, ( online ); 1831, 2nd vol. ( Online , online ); 1831, 3rd volume ( online ); 1831, 4th vol. ( Online ); 1836, 5th Vol. ( Online , Online );
• Oratio de naturali artium et doctrinarum conjunctione. 1836
• Philosophy. Attempts at philosophical research in languages ​​to answer the questions: How does man come to truth? How does he get to virtue? How shall we one day come to wisdom? 1838 ( online , online )
• Socrates. Johannem Müller, Amsterdam 1839 ( online )
• Characterismi Principum Philosophorum veterum, Socratis, Platonis, Aristotelis. 1839 ( online )
• De school of Polybius. 1841 ( online )

literature

• Abraham Jacob van der Aa : Biographical Woordenboek der Nederlanden. Verlag JJ van Brederode, Haarlem, 1867, vol. 8, part 2, p. 742 ( online , Dutch)
• Lakke: HEUSDE (Philip Willem van) . In: Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen , Petrus Johannes Blok : Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek . (NNBW), AW Sijthoff's Uitgevers-Maatschappij publishing house, Leiden, 1921, vol. 5, col. 231 (Dutch)
• Magazine for foreign literature. AW Hann, Berlin, 1839, vol. 16, p. 453 ( online )
• Gerhard Stockfeld: In memory of the great and well-known Professor Ph. W. van Heusde. Jacob Anton Mayer , Aachen, 1840
• J. Roulez: Notice biographique sur PJ Van Heusde, Docteur en Philosophy, en Lettres et en Droit. Professeur A L'Université D 'Utrecht, Membre De L' Academie Royale des Sciences et Belles-Lettres de Bruxelles, etc. Verlag M. Hayez, Brussels, 1841 ( online , French)
• A. van Goudoever: Levensberigt van Wijlen the Hoogleeraar Philippus Willem van Heusde. In: Utrechtsche Studenten Almanak voor het Jaar 1840. N. van der Monde, Utrecht, 1840, p. 161 ( online , Dutch)
• Jacobus Adolphus Carolus Rovers: Memoria Heusdii. Verlag Robertum Natan, Utrecht 1841 ( Online , Latin)

Web links

• Catalogus Professorum Academiae Rheno-Traiectinae
• Philip Willem van Heusde at the DBNL
• Brief CV at the University Museum Utrecht
• Peter Bak, voor Protestant.nl
• Works by and about Philipp Wilhelm van Heusde  in the German Digital Library

Individual evidence

1. ^ Philipp Christiaan Molhuysen : Album promotum Academiae Lugduno Batavae 1575-1812. The Hague 1913-1924, p. 303, was only entered in the college's register in 1762 as a 24-year-old.
2. ↑ Nederland's patriciaat. Published by the Central Office of Genealogy and Heraldry, The Hague, 1914, 5th year, p. 196.
3. ^ G. du Rieu: Album studiosorum Academiae Lugduno-Batavae 1575-1875. Martin Nijhoff, The Hague, 1875, Sp. 1196
4. ↑ The documents of the Leiden promotional album, which are actually complete for this time, do not contain such a promotion.
5. ↑ PC Molhysen: Album Promotorum Academiae Lugduno Batavae 1575-1812. The Hague, 1913-1924, p. 123.
6. ^ De Nederlandsche leeuw. Maandblad van het Koninklijk Nederlandsch Genootschap voor Geslacht- en Wapenkunde. 1883, p. 77.
7. ^ Genealogy link .