Wetenschap, beroep en status ten tijde van de Republiek: de intellectueel

Abstract

Science, profession and social status in the Dutch Republic: the intellectualsIn an earlier issue of this journal K. van Berkel expressed his criticism of the author's doctoral dissertation on the social status of intellectuals in the period of the Dutch Republic. The authors aims at refuting his adverse comment by emphasizing that the relationship between intellectual history and socio-cultural history is a very complex one: evolutions in this field cannot be reduced to one single factor (such as. for example, the economic, social or scientific development). Secondly the author opposes his critic's assumption that there could have been something like a "non-university trained intellectual" in early-modern Dutch society. The notion of an "intellectual" does not refer to individual erudition or technical knowledge, but to social status. Only university training granted such status during the Dutch Republic: intellectuals were literati, i.e. members of the learned professions.