Chapter Eight. The Arts II: The Philosophical Subjects

Abstract

This chapter shows that the order, maintained at a Protestant institute, reflected the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum of 1599; but this was not the only way in which Protestants borrowed from the Jesuit tradition. By examining the pedagogical content in logic, physics and moral philosophy, it compares the education at the Athenaeum to that of other institutions of higher education. Mathematics is included in this chapter on philosophy, although the position of mathematics within the arts remained unstable. Of the three surviving inaugural speeches given at the Athenaeum by philosophy professors in the seventeenth century, each marks the start of one of the periods outlined in the chapter. Each, in turn, demonstrates the pedagogical priorities of Barlaeus, Senguerdius and De Raei. While Barlaeus discussed Aristotelian metaphysics and physics in his lectures, Hortensius explained the heliocentric system in his mathematics classes. .Keywords: Aristotelian metaphysics; Athenaeum; Barlaeus; De Raei; Hortensius; Jesuit Ratio Studiorum; Senguerdius; seventeenth century philosophy professor