The Most Famous
PHILOSOPHERS from Netherlands
This page contains a list of the greatest Dutch Philosophers. The pantheon dataset contains 1,081 Philosophers, 8 of which were born in Netherlands. This makes Netherlands the birth place of the 24th most number of Philosophers behind Algeria and Iraq.
Top 8
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Dutch Philosophers of all time. This list of famous Dutch Philosophers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Erasmus (1466 - 1536)
With an HPI of 83.50, Erasmus is the most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 94 different languages on wikipedia.
Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (; Dutch: [ˌdeːziˈdeːriʏs eˈrɑsmʏs]; English: Erasmus of Rotterdam or Erasmus; 28 October c.1466 – 12 July 1536) was a Dutch Christian humanist, Catholic theologian, educationalist, satirist, and philosopher. Through his vast number of translations, books, essays, prayers and letters, he is considered one of the most influential thinkers of the Northern Renaissance and one of the major figures of Dutch and Western culture. He was an important figure in classical scholarship who wrote in a spontaneous, copious and natural Latin style. As a Catholic priest developing humanist techniques for working on texts, he prepared important new Latin and Greek editions of the New Testament, which raised questions that would be influential in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. He also wrote On Free Will, The Praise of Folly, Handbook of a Christian Knight, On Civility in Children, Copia: Foundations of the Abundant Style and many other works. Erasmus lived against the backdrop of the growing European religious Reformation. He developed a biblical humanistic theology in which he advocated tolerance, concord and free thinking on matters of indifference. He remained a member of the Catholic Church all his life, remaining committed to reforming the Church from within. He promoted the traditional doctrine of synergism, which some prominent Reformers such as Martin Luther and John Calvin rejected in favor of the doctrine of monergism. His middle-road approach disappointed, and even angered, partisans in both camps.
2. Baruch Spinoza (1632 - 1677)
With an HPI of 82.22, Baruch Spinoza is the 2nd most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 110 different languages.
Baruch (de) Spinoza (24 November 1632 – 21 February 1677), also known under his Latinized pen name Benedictus de Spinoza, was a philosopher of Portuguese-Jewish origin. As a forerunner of the Age of Reason, Spinoza significantly influenced modern biblical criticism, 17th-century Rationalism, and contemporary conceptions of the self and the universe, establishing himself as one of the most important and radical philosophers of the early modern period. He was influenced by Stoicism, Maimonides, Niccolò Machiavelli, René Descartes, Thomas Hobbes, and a variety of heterodox Christian thinkers of his day. Spinoza was born in Amsterdam to a marrano family that had left Portugal for a more tolerant Amsterdam. He had a traditional education for a Jewish boy, learning Hebrew and studying the sacred texts. He was part of the wealthy Portuguese Jewish community, where his merchant immigrant father was a prominent member. As a young man, Spinoza was permanently expelled from the Jewish community for defying rabbinic authorities and disputing Jewish beliefs. After his expulsion in 1656, he did not affiliate with any religion, instead focusing on philosophical study. He had a dedicated following, or philosophical sect, who met to discuss his writings. Spinoza challenged the divine origin of the Hebrew Bible, the nature of God, and the earthly power wielded by religious authorities, Jewish and Christian alike. He was frequently called an atheist by contemporaries, although nowhere in his work does Spinoza argue against the existence of God. This can be explained by the fact that, unlike contemporary 21st-century scholars, “when seventeenth-century readers accused Spinoza of atheism, they usually meant that he challenged doctrinal orthodoxy, particularly on moral issues, and not that he denied God’s existence." His theological studies were inseparable from his thinking on politics; he is grouped with Hobbes, John Locke, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, and Immanuel Kant, who "helped establish the genre of political writing called secular theology." Spinoza's philosophy encompasses nearly every area of philosophical discourse, including metaphysics, epistemology, political philosophy, ethics, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of science. With an enduring reputation as one of the most original and influential thinkers of the seventeenth century, Rebecca Goldstein dubbed him "the renegade Jew who gave us modernity."
3. Jacobus Arminius (1560 - 1609)
With an HPI of 63.58, Jacobus Arminius is the 3rd most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 35 different languages.
Jacobus Arminius (; Dutch: Jakob Hermanszoon ; 10 October 1560 – 19 October 1609) was a Dutch Reformed minister and theologian during the Protestant Reformation period whose views became the basis of Arminianism and the Dutch Remonstrant movement. He served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden and wrote many books and treatises on theology. Following his death, his challenge to the Reformed standard, the Belgic Confession, provoked ample discussion at the Synod of Dort, which crafted the five points of Calvinism in response to Arminius's teaching.
4. Rodolphus Agricola (1443 - 1485)
With an HPI of 59.27, Rodolphus Agricola is the 4th most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 26 different languages.
Rodolphus Agricola (Latin: Rudolphus Agricola Phrisius; August 28, 1443, or February 17, 1444 – October 27, 1485) was a Dutch humanist of the Northern Low Countries, famous for his knowledge of Latin and Greek. He was an educator, musician, builder of church organs, a poet in Latin and the vernacular, a diplomat, a boxer and a Hebrew scholar towards the end of his life. Today, he is best known as the author of De inventione dialectica, the father of Northern European humanism and a zealous anti-scholastic in the late fifteenth century.
5. Jacob Moleschott (1822 - 1893)
With an HPI of 53.87, Jacob Moleschott is the 5th most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Jacob Moleschott (9 August 1822 – 20 May 1893) was a Dutch physiologist and writer on dietetics. He is known for his philosophical views in regard to scientific materialism. He was a member of German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (since 1884).
6. Dirck Coornhert (1522 - 1590)
With an HPI of 51.00, Dirck Coornhert is the 6th most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 18 different languages.
Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1522 – 29 October 1590), also known as Theodore Cornhert, was a Dutch writer, philosopher, translator, politician, theologian and artist. Coornhert is often considered the Father of Dutch Renaissance scholarship.
7. Thomas van Erpe (1584 - 1624)
With an HPI of 46.86, Thomas van Erpe is the 7th most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Thomas van Erpe, also known as Thomas Erpenius (September 11, 1584 – November 13, 1624), Dutch Orientalist, was born at Gorinchem, in Holland. He was the first European to publish an accurate book of Arabic grammar.After completing his early education at Leiden, he entered the university of that city, and in 1608 took the degree of master of arts. On the advice of Scaliger he studied Oriental languages whilst taking his course of theology. He afterwards travelled in England, France, Italy and Germany, forming connections with learned men, and availing himself of the information which they communicated. During his stay at Paris he contracted a friendship with Casaubon, which lasted during his life, and also took lessons in Arabic from an Egyptian, Joseph Barbatus, otherwise called Abu-dakni. However, given the limited knowledge Barbatus had in Arabic he later took lessons under the Moroccan diplomat of Andalusian origin Aḥmad ibn Qāsim Al-Ḥajarī who was in France on a mission.At Venice he perfected his knowledge of the Turkish, Persic and Ethiopic languages. After a long absence, Erpenius returned to his own country in 1612, and in February 1613 he was appointed professor of Arabic and other Oriental languages, Hebrew excepted, in the University of Leiden. Soon after his settlement at Leiden, animated by the example of Savary de Brèves, who had established an Arabic press at Paris at his own charge, he caused new Arabic characters to be cut at a great expense, and erected a press in his own house.In 1619 the curators of the university of Leiden instituted a second chair of Hebrew in his favour. In 1620 he was sent by the States of Holland to induce Pierre Dumoulin, or André Rivet, to settle in that country; and after a second journey he was successful in inducing Rivet to comply with their request. Some time after the return of Erpenius, the states appointed him their interpreter; and in this capacity he had the duty imposed upon him of translating and replying to the different letters of the Moslem princes of Asia and Africa.His reputation had now spread throughout all Europe, and several princes, the kings of England and Spain, and the archbishop of Seville made him the most flattering offers; but he constantly refused to leave his native country. He was preparing an edition of the Qur'an with a Latin translation and notes, and was projecting an Oriental library, when he died prematurely on the 13 November 1624 in Leiden. His library of oriental books, papers and manuscripts, including six undated Malay manuscripts, was purchased by George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham on behalf of Cambridge University and eventually transferred to Cambridge University Library in 1632 by the University Librarian Abraham Wheelocke.Among his works may be mentioned his Grammatica Arabica (1748), published originally in 1613 and often reprinted; Rudimenta linguae Arabicae (1620); Grammatica Ebraea generalis (1621) Grammatica Chaldaea ac Syra (1628); and an edition of George Elmacin's Historia Saracenica, Arabice & Latine (History of the Saracens).
8. Bas van Fraassen (1941 - )
With an HPI of 45.53, Bas van Fraassen is the 8th most famous Dutch Philosopher. His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.
Bastiaan Cornelis van Fraassen (; born 1941) is a Dutch-American philosopher noted for his contributions to philosophy of science, epistemology and formal logic. He is a Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at San Francisco State University and the McCosh Professor of Philosophy Emeritus at Princeton University.
Pantheon has 8 people classified as philosophers born between 1443 and 1941. Of these 8, 1 (12.50%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living philosophers include Bas van Fraassen. The most famous deceased philosophers include Erasmus, Baruch Spinoza, and Jacobus Arminius. As of April 2022, 1 new philosophers have been added to Pantheon including Thomas van Erpe.
Living Philosophers
Go to all RankingsDeceased Philosophers
Go to all Rankings
Erasmus
1466 - 1536
HPI: 83.50
Baruch Spinoza
1632 - 1677
HPI: 82.22
Jacobus Arminius
1560 - 1609
HPI: 63.58
Rodolphus Agricola
1443 - 1485
HPI: 59.27
Jacob Moleschott
1822 - 1893
HPI: 53.87
Dirck Coornhert
1522 - 1590
HPI: 51.00
Thomas van Erpe
1584 - 1624
HPI: 46.86
