Arnold Geulincx
Encyclopedia
Arnold Geulincx was a Flemish philosopher. He was one of the followers of René Descartes
who tried to work out more detailed versions of a generally Cartesian philosophy. Samuel Beckett
cited Geulincx as a key influence and interlocutor
because of Geulincx's emphasis on the powerlessness and ignorance of the human condition.
and was made professor of philosophy there in 1646. He lost his post in 1658, possibly for religious reasons, or (as has been suggested) a combination of unpopular views and his marriage in that year. Geulincx then moved north to the University of Leiden and converted to Calvinism
. Initially he gave private lessons. He was appointed reader in logic
there in 1662 and extraordinary professor in 1665. He died in Leiden in 1669, leaving most of his works, all written in Latin, to be published after his death. They were edited by Cornelis Bontekoe
.
in 1710. The attack from Andala was on behalf of the 'true' Cartesians, classing Geulincx as pernicious, with Burchardus de Volder, Jean LeClerc
, Frederik van Leenhof, Pontiaan van Hattem and Willem Deurhoff. Geulincx was also attacked by the Pietist Joachim Lange, as part of a campaign against Christian Wolff
; and regarded with Pierre Bayle
as insidiously anti-Christian by Johann Franz Buddeus
.
The occasionalism
of Geulincx is ethical rather than cosmological in its inception. The first tract of his Ethics is a study of what in his terms are the cardinal virtues
. Virtue according to Geulincx is the love of God and of Reason (III, 16-17; 29). The cardinal virtues are the properties of virtue which immediately flow from its very essence and have nothing to do with externals: diligence
, obedience
, justice
, humility
(III, 17). Humility divides his view of the world into two parts: one, the understanding of our relation to the world; and the other, the concept of our relation to God. Humility consists in the knowledge of self and the forsaking of self. I find in myself nothing that is my own but to know and to will. I therefore must be conscious of all that I do, and that of which I am not conscious is not the product of my own causality. Hence the universal principle of causality--quod nescis quo modo fiat, non facis--if you do not know how a thing is done then you do not do it. He also states a form of this principle in his Metaphysica vera. Since then, the movements of my body take place without my knowing how the nervous impulse passes to the muscles and there-causes them to contract I do not cause my own bodily actions. "I am therefore a mere spectator of this machine. In it I form naught and renew naught, I neither make anything here nor destroy it. Everything is the work of someone else" (III, 33) . This one is the Deity who sees and knows all things. The second part of Geulincx's philosophy is connected with Occasionalism as the effect with the cause. Its guiding principle is: Where you can do nothing there also you should desire nothing (III, 222). This leads to a mysticism and asceticism which however must not be taken too seriously for it is tempered by the obligation of caring for the body and propagating the species.
The De virtute was the first part of the Ethica, which ran to six parts when published posthumously.
Students seeking English editions of Geulincx's works will find:
, whose character Murphy
remembers the "beautiful Belgo-Latin of Arnold Geulincx", and in particular the gloomy nostrum (frequently repeated by Beckett to inquisitive critics) Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis (roughly, 'Where you are worth nothing, there you should want nothing.') In the novel Molloy
(1950), Beckett's eponymous character describes himself as "I who had loved the image of old Geulincx, dead young, who left me free, on the black boat of Ulysses, to crawl towards the East, along the deck".
A citation of Geulincx's method of despectus sui appears in the 'Third Essay' of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals.
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
who tried to work out more detailed versions of a generally Cartesian philosophy. Samuel Beckett
Samuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
cited Geulincx as a key influence and interlocutor
Interlocutor
Interlocutor may refer to:* Interlocutor , the master of ceremonies of a minstrel show* Interlocutor , someone who informally explains the views of a government and also can relay messages back to a government...
because of Geulincx's emphasis on the powerlessness and ignorance of the human condition.
Life
Geulincx was born in Antwerp. He studied at the University of LeuvenOld University of Leuven
The Old University of Leuven is the name historians give to the university, or studium generale, founded in Leuven, Brabant , in 1425, and closed in 1797, a week after the cession to the French Republic of the Austrian Netherlands and the principality of Liège by the Treaty of Campo Formio.When...
and was made professor of philosophy there in 1646. He lost his post in 1658, possibly for religious reasons, or (as has been suggested) a combination of unpopular views and his marriage in that year. Geulincx then moved north to the University of Leiden and converted to Calvinism
Calvinism
Calvinism is a Protestant theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
. Initially he gave private lessons. He was appointed reader in logic
Logic
In philosophy, Logic is the formal systematic study of the principles of valid inference and correct reasoning. Logic is used in most intellectual activities, but is studied primarily in the disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, semantics, and computer science...
there in 1662 and extraordinary professor in 1665. He died in Leiden in 1669, leaving most of his works, all written in Latin, to be published after his death. They were edited by Cornelis Bontekoe
Cornelis Bontekoe
Cornelis Bontekoe , whose real name was Cornelis Dekker, was a Dutch physician known also as a popular essayist, particularly on tea, and editor of the works of Arnold Geulincx...
.
Reputation
Despite Geulincx's thesis that God cannot act without an instrumentality of variety, he was strongly attacked in the early eighteenth century, for example by Ruardus Andala and Carolus Tuinman, as a Spinozist. This criticism had originated from Christian ThomasiusChristian Thomasius
Christian Thomasius was a German jurist and philosopher.- Biography :He was born at Leipzig and was educated by his father, Jakob Thomasius , at that time head master of Thomasschule zu Leipzig...
in 1710. The attack from Andala was on behalf of the 'true' Cartesians, classing Geulincx as pernicious, with Burchardus de Volder, Jean LeClerc
Jean Leclerc (theologian)
Jean Le Clerc, also Johannes Clericus was a Swiss theologian and biblical scholar. He was famous for promoting exegesis, or critical interpretation of the Bible, and was a radical of his age...
, Frederik van Leenhof, Pontiaan van Hattem and Willem Deurhoff. Geulincx was also attacked by the Pietist Joachim Lange, as part of a campaign against Christian Wolff
Christian Wolff (philosopher)
Christian Wolff was a German philosopher.He was the most eminent German philosopher between Leibniz and Kant...
; and regarded with Pierre Bayle
Pierre Bayle
Pierre Bayle was a French philosopher and writer best known for his seminal work the Historical and Critical Dictionary, published beginning in 1695....
as insidiously anti-Christian by Johann Franz Buddeus
Johann Franz Buddeus
Johann Franz Buddeus or Budde , German Lutheran theologian and philosopher; born at Anklam, Swedish Pomerania, where his father was pastor, 25 June 1667; died at Gotha 19 November 1729.-Life:...
.
Philosophy
Geulincx summarized his philosophy in the phrase, "Ita est, ergo ita sit", ("it exists, therefore it is so"). He believed in a "pre-established harmony" as a solution to the mind-body problem, dying 25 years before Leibniz's better–remembered formulation of the idea. In Leibniz's philosophy, the doctrine of pre-established harmony was linked with optimism, the notion of this world as the "best of all possible worlds". But Geulincx made no such linkage.The occasionalism
Occasionalism
Occasionalism is a philosophical theory about causation which says that created substances cannot be efficient causes of events. Instead, all events are taken to be caused directly by God...
of Geulincx is ethical rather than cosmological in its inception. The first tract of his Ethics is a study of what in his terms are the cardinal virtues
Cardinal virtues
In Christian traditionthere are 4 cardinal virtues:*Prudence - able to judge between actions with regard to appropriate actions at a given time*Justice - proper moderation between self-interest and the rights and needs of others...
. Virtue according to Geulincx is the love of God and of Reason (III, 16-17; 29). The cardinal virtues are the properties of virtue which immediately flow from its very essence and have nothing to do with externals: diligence
Diligence
Diligence is steadfast application, assiduousness and industry — the virtue of hard work rather than the sin of careless sloth.Diligent behaviour is indicative of a work ethic — a belief that work is good in itself....
, obedience
Obedience
The term obedience can refer to:* Obedience ** The educational film Obedience about the Milgram experiment on obedience to authority figures* Vow of obedience as an evangelical counsel* Obedience training for dogs...
, justice
Justice
Justice is a concept of moral rightness based on ethics, rationality, law, natural law, religion, or equity, along with the punishment of the breach of said ethics; justice is the act of being just and/or fair.-Concept of justice:...
, humility
Humility
Humility is the quality of being modest, and respectful. Humility, in various interpretations, is widely seen as a virtue in many religious and philosophical traditions, being connected with notions of transcendent unity with the universe or the divine, and of egolessness.-Term:The term "humility"...
(III, 17). Humility divides his view of the world into two parts: one, the understanding of our relation to the world; and the other, the concept of our relation to God. Humility consists in the knowledge of self and the forsaking of self. I find in myself nothing that is my own but to know and to will. I therefore must be conscious of all that I do, and that of which I am not conscious is not the product of my own causality. Hence the universal principle of causality--quod nescis quo modo fiat, non facis--if you do not know how a thing is done then you do not do it. He also states a form of this principle in his Metaphysica vera. Since then, the movements of my body take place without my knowing how the nervous impulse passes to the muscles and there-causes them to contract I do not cause my own bodily actions. "I am therefore a mere spectator of this machine. In it I form naught and renew naught, I neither make anything here nor destroy it. Everything is the work of someone else" (III, 33) . This one is the Deity who sees and knows all things. The second part of Geulincx's philosophy is connected with Occasionalism as the effect with the cause. Its guiding principle is: Where you can do nothing there also you should desire nothing (III, 222). This leads to a mysticism and asceticism which however must not be taken too seriously for it is tempered by the obligation of caring for the body and propagating the species.
Works
All published in Latin, the works appearing in his lifetime were:- Quaestiones Quodlibeticae (1653) with later edition Saturnalia;
- Disputatio medica inauguralis de febribus (1658);
- Logica fundamentis suis restituta (1662)
- Methodus inveniendi argumenta (1663)
- De virtute (1665).
- Opera philosophica Edited by J. P. N. Land, The Hague, Martinum Nijhoff, 1891-1893 (3 vol.)
The De virtute was the first part of the Ethica, which ran to six parts when published posthumously.
Students seeking English editions of Geulincx's works will find:
- Metaphysics, trans. Martin Wilson, Christoffel Press, 1999.
- Ethics, trans. Martin Wilson, Brill, 2006.
Influence
He is cited by Samuel BeckettSamuel Beckett
Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...
, whose character Murphy
Murphy (novel)
Murphy, first published in 1938, is a novel as well as the third work of prose fiction by the Irish author and dramatist Samuel Beckett. The book was Beckett's second published prose work after the short-story collection More Pricks than Kicks and his unpublished first novel Dream of Fair to...
remembers the "beautiful Belgo-Latin of Arnold Geulincx", and in particular the gloomy nostrum (frequently repeated by Beckett to inquisitive critics) Ubi nihil vales, ibi nihil velis (roughly, 'Where you are worth nothing, there you should want nothing.') In the novel Molloy
Molloy
Molloy may refer to:People:* Anthony James Pye Molloy, Royal Navy officer* Bobby Molloy, Irish politician* Georgiana Molloy, early settler and botanical collector in Western Australia* James Lynam Molloy, Irish poet, author and composer...
(1950), Beckett's eponymous character describes himself as "I who had loved the image of old Geulincx, dead young, who left me free, on the black boat of Ulysses, to crawl towards the East, along the deck".
A citation of Geulincx's method of despectus sui appears in the 'Third Essay' of Nietzsche's Genealogy of Morals.