D. H. Th. Vollenhoven - Doctorate and The VU University

Doctorate and The VU University

While pastoring his congregation in Den Haag, Vollenhoven was appointed the first full-time Professor of Philosophy at the VU University in Amsterdam – partly because his academic background was strong in classics, philosophy, and theology and partly in consideration of his interdisciplinary doctoral dissertation in theology and the philosophical foundations of mathematics: 'The Philosophy of Mathematics from a Theistic Standpoint' (not yet translated from the Dutch). He successfully defended it in 1918. To prepare for it, Vollenhoven — whose undergraduate and Master's level studies were pursued at the VU University — turned to VU's larger rival, the University of Amsterdam (UA) in order to study under its Professor of Mathematics, Dr Lutgen Brouwer, an Intuitionist in mathematics and a Marxist in other respects. Vollenhoven in his dissertation criticized Brouwer's version of Intuitionism, but retained and revised the definition of the term "Intuitionist" for his own emerging position,1 which would become a component of Vollenhoven's epistemology. Once inaugurated into the chair of Philosophy at the VU University, Vollenhoven shouldered the responsibilities of his task from the time of his appointment, being a relatively young scholar, to the time of his retirement in ripe old age.