Spinoza and Christiaan Huygens: The Odd Philosopher and the Odd Sympathy of Pendulum Clocks 1

This paper shows that the spectacular observations made by Christiaan Huygens in February 1665 of self-synchronizing pendulum clocks may provide a context within which to understand Spinoza’s otherwise paradoxical Letter 32 to Henry Oldenburg from November 1665. In this letter, Spinoza appears to imply that bodies can adapt themselves to another body in a non-mechanistic way, and absent the agency of an external cause – a claim that is completely contradictory with the metaphysical determinism that is an important and characteristic element of Spinoza’s philosophy.

Buyse, Filip, A New Reading of Spinoza’s Letter 32 to Oldenburg: Spinoza and the Agreement between Bodies in the Universe. In: Gábor Boros, Judit Szalai and Olivér István Tóth (eds), The Concept of Affectivity in Early Modern Philosophy, Budapest, 2017, 104-123. , 2017

The starting point of this paper is an apparent paradox in Spinoza’s reply to a question – concerning the agreement (or the coherence) between bodies in the universe – that Robert Boyle had addressed in Letter 31 to the Dutch philosopher via Henry Oldenburg. In the first chapter (2) of this paper, I will indicate what the problem is and put it in context. In the next chapter (3), this paper tries to resolve the paradox by suggesting that Spinoza had applied the mechanical analogy of the synchronization of pendulum clocks. My claim is that although it seems that bodies can determine themselves, they are externally determined by synchronization. Subsequently, this paper gives some arguments (4) in favor of the plausibility of this hypothesis. In the next chapter (5), the difference between the synchronization hypothesis and 105 A New Reading of Spinoza’s Letter 32 to Oldenburg: Spinoza and the Agreement between Bodies in the Universe. Gueroult’s pendulum hypothesis will be addressed and opposed to Deleuze’s interpretation. Finally (6), this paper gives a reason why Spinoza does not mention the “pendulum clock” in his explanation of Letter 32, even though he might have been inspired by the motions of pendulums (clocks) in his conception of the ratio of motion and rest of bodies.

Society and Politics, 2017

On the 2th October 2017, the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to three researchers who were able to elucidate how the internal, biological clock of living organisms adapts itself so that it is synchronized with the Earth’s revolutions. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was the first physicist to observe and analyze the phenomenon of synchronization. More precisely, the Dutch physicist and astronomer observed on the 1st March of 1665 that two pendulum clocks which were standing in front of him started to move in phase. He couldn’t believe his eyes and tried to find a mechanical explanation for this spectacular observation “which no one ever would have thought of.“. Initially, he interpreted ‘l’accord merveilleux’ as a kind of ‘sympathy’ but already one month later he discovered the real mechanical cause of this odd phenomenon. In this volume, Dr. Kurt Wiesenfeld explains how his research group has examined synchronization by means of reconstructions of Huygens’ pendulum clocks. In another paper, Dr. Filip Buyse argues that Spinoza was in contact with Christiaan Huygens during the period of his spectacular invention. Hence, the Dutch physicist and astronomer might have influenced and inspired Spinoza (1632 -1677) in his views on the agreement between bodies in the universe. This would resolve Spinoza’s otherwise paradoxical phrases in his answer to Robert Boyle’s question, in his Letter 32 (1665) to the secretary of the Royale Society. Furthermore, Dr. Maxime Rovere argues in his paper that Spinoza might also have been influenced by the physics of oscillating pendulums in his theory of emotions. Christiaan Huygens designed his pendulum clock in 1656 and it was built by his instrument maker Salomon Coster (ca.1622-1659). He patented his sophisticated machine in 1657. However, Huygens was not the first to conceive a pendulum regulated clock. As he reveals in his Horologium (1658), his invention was based on Galileo’s invention of the principle of isochronism. (A principle which is discussed by Dr. Mohammed Abattouy in this special issue.) There is historical evidence that Galileo had already started to do research on the movement of a pendulum in 1603. At that moment he was professor in Padua. In this issue, Fabrizio Bigotti and David Taylor reconstruct and discuss a seventeenthth century medical instrument designed based on the pendulum. This pulsilogium was probably invented by one of Galileo’s colleagues, Santorio Santorio (1561-1636). .....

2012

This chapter argues that the standard conception of Spinoza as a fellow-travelling mechanical philosopher and proto-scientific naturalist is misleading. It argues, first, that Spinoza's account of the proper method for the study of nature presented in the Theological-Political Treatise points away from the one commonly associated with the mechanical philosophy. Moreover, throughout his works Spinoza's views on the very possibility of knowledge of nature are decidedly sceptical. Third, in the seventeenth-century debates ...

Society and Politics, 7(2), 2013, 34-53. , 2013

There is a bundle of texts that have become known as the Boyle/Spinoza correspondence, yet Boyle and Spinoza never directly communicated. How did this so-called correspondence start? Why did Boyle invite the philosopher Spinoza to comment on his scientific experiments? How can we interpret the central experiment of the controversy in a modern way? Is there any real controversy between the two philosophers? An analysis of the context, the letters and De Nitro reveals that, according to Boyle at least, Spinoza never really understood what was really at stake in Boyle’s important book. Furthermore, I argue, contrary to most commentators, that the philosophers actually had a kind of correspondence based on an implicit agreement regarding their doctrines of the qualities of bodies. And finally, I show that the international network which was important for the understanding of the context as well as for the content of the Boyle/Spinoza correspondence was the Hartlib circle rather than the Royal Society.

Pendulum Clocks in the Seventeenth Century Philosophy, 2017

Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) was the first physicist to observe and analyze the phenomenon of synchronization. More precisely, the Dutch physicist and astronomer observed on the 1st March of 1653 that two pendulum clocks that were standing in front of him started to move in phase. He couldn't believe his eyes and tried to find a mechanical explanation for this spectacular observation “which no one ever would have thought of. “. Initially, he interpreted „l‟accord merveilleux‟ as a kind of „sympathy‟ but already one month later4 he discovered the real mechanical cause of this odd phenomenon.

Church History and Religious Culture, 2020

This paper examines two interpretations of a passage in Descartes’s text. Johannes Clauberg and Benedict Spinoza comment on the same paragraph in the Principles of Philosophy (1646). Descartes, in the paragraph, argues that the same amount of motion remains in the universe because of God’s immutable essence and operation. On the one hand, Clauberg embraces Descartes’s physics in general but modifies it to suit the theological tradition of the Reformed church, which held the official confession for where his professional career mattered. Spinoza, on the other hand, gets rid of all traces of the biblical religion from Descartes’s physics. While particular theological (or anti-theological) positions of these thinkers dictate their interpretations of Descartes’s text, their solutions are surprisingly similar.

O que nos faz pensar, 2018

The pendulum clock was one of the most important metaphors for early modern philosophers. Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695) discovered his pendulum clock in 1656 based on the principle of isochronism discovered by Galileo (1564-1642). This paper aims at exploring the broad historical context of this invention, showing the role of some key figures such as Andreas Colvius (1594-1671), Elia Diodati (1576-1661), Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) and Constantijn Huygens, the father of Christiaan Huygens. Secondly, it suggests - based on this context - that it is hard to believe that Huygens did not know about Galileo's idea to construct a pendulum regulated clock. Finally, this article illustrates how the Dutch philosopher Spinoza (1632-1677) might have been inspired by Huygens' discovery of the synchronization of the pendulum clocks in his views on the agreement between bodies in the universe.

Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, 1986