Spinoza and Cartesianism

Abstract

The idea that theology and philosophy are separate disciplines; that they have their own methods and their own problems and that they play their own role in society, never was very original. However, the idea that philosophy is irrelevant to theology and that whatever philosophy does is of no consequence to theology was new in the seventeenth century and seems to have been characteristic of Cartesianism.¹ In this paper, I shall discuss some aspects of the problem as it was further developed by Dutch Cartesians and, more particularly show, that Spinoza cannot be understood without this background.

Cf Paul Dibon, ‘Connaissance révélée et connaissance rationnelle: aperçu sur les points forts d’un débat épineux’, in: Regards sur la Hollande du siècle d’or (Naples, 1990), pp. 693-719; for Descartes himself, see Henri Gouhier, La Pensée religieuse de Descartes (Paris, 1924), pp. 217-235.