Intellectual Freedom of the Dutch Republic

6 min readApr 5, 2024

While I was reading A History of Western Philosophy, Bertrand Russel made a claim that utterly captivated me,

“[Descartes] lived in Holland for twenty years (1629–49), except for a few brief visits to France and one to England, all on business. It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of Holland in the 17th century, as the one country where there was freedom of speculation. Hobbes had to have his books printed there; Locke took refuge there during the five worst years of reaction in England before 1688; Bayle (of the Dictionary) found it necessary to live there; and Spinoza would hardly have been allowed to do his work in any other country.” — Bertrand Russel, A History of Western Philosophy.

This line amazed me as I had never realized Holland was such an impactful region in the 17th century.

“the Dutch were laying the foundation of a public sphere that contributed late in the century to the emergence of the Radical Enlightenment. At the same time, this passion for political debate illustrates one of the striking features of Dutch politics throughout the seventeenth century: the constant reinvention of the newly formed state as it rose to become an independent republic.” — Catherine Secretan, “True Freedom” and the Dutch Tradition of Republicanism.

As Secretan writes, upon the severing of relations between the Prince of Orange and the Grand Pensionary, the Dutch people were presented with a concerning question of how to govern.

For example, the Dutch stadholderate, the highest executive leader, held the ability to preserve an immense deal of personal power that might threaten the liberty of the common man.

These genuine conflicts at the time began a revolution of sourcing the most beneficial beliefs to the structure of political power; and with this, the Dutch were actively creating a region of valuable thought.

“He knows not how to rule a kingdome, that cannot manage a Province; nor can he wield a Province, that cannot order a City; nor can he order a City, that knows not how to regulate a Village; nor he a Village, that cannot guide a Family; nor can that man govern well a Family that knows not how to govern himselfe; neither can any govern himselfe unless his reason be Lord, Will and Appetite her Vassals: nor can Reason rule unless herselfe be ruled by God, and (wholy) be obedient to Him.” — Robert A. Peterson, Lessons in Liberty: The Dutch Republic, 1579–1750.

In other words, the Dutch recognized societies natural tendency towards governing itself as man knows best.

And with the stagnant culture of tyranny that other European governments upheld, surrounding countries began losing worthwhile individual contributors in the masses.

Bertrand Russel’s Examples

So, what did these men that Russel mentioned achieve?

René Descartes (1596–1650):

Foundational Work in Modern Philosophy: Descartes is often regarded as the father of modern philosophy due to his rigorous approach to skepticism and his development of a method of systematic doubt. He sought to establish a secure foundation for knowledge by doubting everything that could be doubted and then rebuilding his system of beliefs from the ground up.
Cartesian Dualism: Descartes is famous for his formulation of Cartesian dualism, which posits a separation between the mind and the body. He argued that the mind and body are distinct substances.
Analytic Geometry: Descartes made significant contributions to the field of mathematics, particularly with the development of Cartesian coordinates, which allowed geometric shapes to be expressed in algebraic terms.

Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679):

Political Philosophy: Hobbes is best known for his work “Leviathan,” which laid the foundation for modern political philosophy. In it, he argued for the necessity of a strong central authority to prevent the chaos of the state of nature.
Social Contract Theory: Hobbes’s social contract theory influenced subsequent political philosophers and provided a framework for understanding the relationship between individuals and the state.

John Locke (1632–1704):

Natural Rights: Locke’s concept of natural rights, including the rights to life, liberty, and property, profoundly influenced political thought and the drafting of constitutions.
Tabula Rasa: Locke proposed the idea of the mind as a “tabula rasa,” or blank slate, suggesting that individuals are born without innate ideas and that knowledge is acquired through experience.
Limited Government: Locke advocated for the idea of limited government with defined powers, a principle that found expression in the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution’s system of checks and balances, separation of powers, and enumeration of specific rights reflect Locke’s belief in the importance of restraining governmental authority to protect individual freedoms.

Pierre Bayle (1647–1706):

Critical Thinking: Bayle was known for his advocacy of freedom of thought and expression. He challenged religious dogma and intolerance, promoting skepticism and critical thinking.
Dictionnaire Historique et Critique: Bayle’s most famous work, the “Dictionnaire Historique et Critique,” was a monumental work of scholarship that influenced Enlightenment thinkers and contributed to the development of the encyclopedia.

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677):

Pantheism: Spinoza proposed a pantheistic view of the universe, wherein God and nature are synonymous. He rejected traditional notions of a personal deity and emphasized the unity of all existence.
Ethics: Spinoza’s “Ethics” is one of his major works, in which he explored topics such as metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. He sought to provide a rational basis for understanding human behavior and the nature of reality.

These points are just a few of the many contributions each man achieved, and this brings me to my central question: would any of this been possible without the intellectual freedom of the Dutch Republic?

An Individual’s Duty

“The greatest danger to the State is independent intellectual criticism; there is no better way to stifle that criticism than to attack any isolated voice, any raiser of new doubts, as a profane violator of the wisdom of his ancestors.” — Murray N. Rothbard, Anatomy of the State.

As the government acts as a monopoly on the usage of force, and forgetting whether or not this is a necessary monopoly, the most effective defenses of one’s rights is the effort to question the preceding authority for when the government is prized higher than the individual, progress and liberty dissipates.

Government regulation on a persons natural and self-evident right to speak is not only a clear violation but an established halt on the intellectual, technological, economic, and social advancement that many strive to accomplish.

And with that, the Dutch Republic offered a safe haven for the contributing thinkers of the time.

Authoritarianism as always, and will always, breed the suppression of ideas and opinion, stopping the necessary function of humans. For a productive nation, government must be limited.

The Everlasting Moral

The Golden Age of the Dutch acts as an empirical insight into the benefits of an intellectually free society; a territory that encourages their neighbors to doubt and think amidst the European culture of academic deprivation.