According to Colerus, Spinoza replied affirmatively when his landlady asked if she "...could be saved in her faith." This paper asks what Spinoza could have meant -- and what his landlady would have thought he meant. She was asking about salvation of a certain kind -- a kind that Spinoza did not in fact believe to be possible. When he talks about salvation in his writings, he has in mind a different kind of salvation -- one that his landlady (...) will certainly not achieve "in her faith." So, when he assured her that she could be saved in her faith was he simply lying to her? This question is explored against the background of the controversies regarding Spinoza's sincerity in the Tractatus Theologico-politicus. (shrink)

In the future Belgian State, in which «communities» and «regions» are constitutionally authorized, the composition, the mission and the competences of the second Chamber, the Senate, are called in question.The «community-agreements» of Egmont and Stuyvenberg provided that the members of the regional councils should be also members of the councils of the communities and members of a Senate.His legislative roll should be limited to pass the revision of the Constitution, the bills with a special majority and to propose amendments (...) at the bills to the Chamber of deputies.The second Chamber, in the European states, envisaged by this study : the French Senate, the Italian Senate, the German Bundesrat and the Swiss Council of States, is always more powerfull that a simple Chamber of reflection, at least on the legislative ground, in the federal states, this assembly has not immediate political control on the national Government.The future Belgian Senate, as these second Chambers, must preserve an active roll in the elaboration of the most important laws and be an assembly of beneficial confrontation between the communities and their deputies; so, the Senate will assure their effective participation to the legislàtîve function. (shrink)

Un détail dans la Vie de Spinoza rédigée par Colerus a pu faire penser que l’auteur du Traité théologico-politique s’était, dans un dessin, représenté sous les traits de Masaniello le chef de l’insurrection de Naples en 1647. Est-ce compatible avec la critique des révolutions, et notamment du tyrannicide, que l’on croit pouvoir lire dans le Traité? En fait, l’analyse spinozienne des bouleversements des États est plus nuancée : l’indignation qui est à la base des révolutions peut être parfois conforme (...) à la Raison ; et le jugement porté sur le peuple est différent suivant qu’il s’agit d’une foule esclave animée par la crainte ou d’une multitude libre animée par l’espérance. (shrink)

The article describes the political crises of June and October 1978 in Belgium.For reasons connected with time and space, this contribution ends with the formation of the Vanden Boeynants transition-government, although even with the formation of the Martens-cabinet in April 1979the problems are not yet solved.The formation of this cabinet has been a long-drawn effort, hampered by substantial obstacles, that have been present since June 1978: the difficulties to elaborate both a crisis-management-policy and a consensus concerning a new constitution. Moreover, (...) all this remains overshadowed by fear and distrust from the other political parties towards de Flemish christian-democrats, who usually succeeded in keeping their internal quarrels a really inside affair. The crisis of 1978 has proved on the other side, that the Egmont-Stuyvenberg agreement on the federalisation of Belgium was neither well-balanced nor mature. (shrink)

One of the most persistent and popular bourgeois myths about Spinoza is that of his unwillingness to participate in any kind of political struggle whatever. This myth is sustained particularly by those non-Marxist historians of philosophy who contend that the essence of Spinozism is the development of a new form of religiosity, free of the limitations of any national religion. Such a conception of the Dutch thinker is partially based on facts related by his first biographers, particularly Lucas. As we (...) know, Lucas, in his Life of Benedict Spinoza, written in French between 1678 and 1688, writes that the philosopher's father, Michael de Spinoza, lacking funds and being unable to establish his son in commerce, chose for him the career of a rabbi, and with this in mind placed the young Spinoza in the Amsterdam kheder, where he gained an excellent knowledge of classical Hebrew and studied to perfection the Old Testament and the considerably more voluminous Talmud. Even during his period of instruction, Spinoza, having found many contradictions in the Bible and Talmud, placed the rabbis who were his teachers in untenable positions and this subsequently led to a conflict between him and the leadership of the Amsterdam Jewish community. This report by Spinoza's first biographer suggests the idea that the young Spinoza had crystallized his ideas as early as his stay in the kheder. This we find stated in many of the non-Marxist studies devoted to him. Soviet writings on Spinoza also usually repeat Lucas' view entirely without criticism . However, certain foreign researches of recent decades, which have given consideration to documents and firsthand reports published in 1932 by the Dutch researcher Vaz Dias and, more recently, certain other documents have necessitated considerable corrections in the biographies both by Lucas and Colerus. In these works — of which the book by the French researcher Madeleine Francés, Spinoza dans les pays Neerlandais de la seconde moitié du XVII siècle, Vol. I, Paris, 1937, and that of the American researcher, Lewis Feuer, Spinoza and the Rise of Liberalism, Boston, 1958, are particularly worthy of mention — serious attempts are made to demonstrate the social roots and essence of Spinozism. The biographical data presented in these works contribute to a clarification of the real reasons for the conflict between the young Spinoza and the leadership of the Jewish community of Amsterdam. According to these writers, Spinoza's father was a wealthy man and, in all probability, did not intend to make a rabbi of his son. There can be no question that the young Spinoza attended the elementary classes of the Jewish school, but his name is not found in the lists of students in its higher grades, from which future rabbis emerged. Beginning approximately at the age of thirteen, Bento helped his father in his commercial and financial operations. However, after his father's death, Baruch himself took charge of these matters during the period 1654-1656 and, as these documents suggest, demonstrated considerable skill in commercial and financial affairs. However, the activities of merchant and financier did not appeal to the young man. The discrepancy between his intellectual interests and the nature of his occupation proved so irreconcilable that the future philosopher, who had established numerous scholarly and personal ties outside the Jewish community, drifted farther and farther both from his business and the community, until finally he was excommunicated, and broke with the community. (shrink)

Although immigration of foreign workers had practically ceased since 1974, a series of important facts or developments took place in 1977.1. Unemployment increased and maintained itself on a high level. Immigrants, who make up 10 % of the active population, were affected by 14 % of the total unemployment. This percentage has remained constant since 1967. Nevertheless, these figures do not seem to have been noted by the Members of Parliament. They merely intend to propose either sending back all foreign (...) unemployed workers, or simply expelling all working foreigners.2. In 1977, the Foreign Office replaced the former «Foreign Police». This does not mean, however, that the situation of the immigrants has improved.3. The granting of voting and eligibility rights to immigrants with respect to local elections is an idea which made progress in 1977. However, the political parties have very different ideas on this. Also, the issue of whether granting such rights does or does not imply a revisionof the Belgian Constitution has still not been solved.4. Previous to 1977, the immigration policy had fallen under the competency of the Ministers of Employment and Labor and of Justice. The recently concluded policy agreement, the Egmont Pact, calls for the regions and communities to play an important role in this matter. So far, this modification has barely been noted by the legislature. (shrink)

Das Interesse am Lebenslauf Baruch de Spinozas, das stets das Interesse an seiner Philosophie begleitet hat, ist - im Vergleich zum Interesse an anderen Gestalten der Philosophiegeschichte - ungewöhnlich groß gewesen und bis heute lebendig geblieben. Keiner hat - in den Augen der Zeitgenossen - so radikal wie er das traditionale Denken in Frage gestellt. Die Neuausgabe dieses Bandes, der die sechs überlieferten Lebensbeschreibungen Spinozas von Jelles, Lucas, Kortholt, Bayle, Colerus und Stolle-Hallmann enthält, erfaßt im gänzlich neu bearbeiteten Anhang (...) alle zwischenzeitlich neu aufgefundenen Dokumente und Urkunden zu Leben und Werk Spinozas. Die beigegebene Bibliographie verzeichnet alle Veröffentlichungen zu Leben und Werk Spinozas. (shrink)

The elections for the provincial councils of the 8th of November 1981 show the same tendencies as the parliamentary elections, held at the same time. The liberals had a general progress, the socialists kept their positions and the christian democrats were subject to severe decline. Whereas the Flemish nationalist Volksunie regained his strength of the pre-Egmont period, the French and Walloon federalist parties lost a considerable part of their electorate. This however does not represent by itself the care of (...) the regional asymmetric electoral behaviour; it is rather the fact that in Flanders there was only one loosing party, where in the other regions more than one party had a considerable decline. (shrink)