D. H. Th. Vollenhoven - Problem-Historical Method

Problem-Historical Method

As professor of philosophy at the VU, Vollenhoven realized that a systematic/thetical approach implied a critical framework for understanding and evaluating the philosophical work of others. Philosophical systematics requires a close historical reading of the entire common tradition of Western philosophy, from the early Greeks onward. Vollenhoven was well equipped by his classical studies for this pursuit of an adequate historiographical backup for a systematic philosophy that sought to be meaningfully and distinctively Christian. So, he started from scratch and worked methodically, employing the tools that he had garnered.

As his horizon grew in those early years of his professorship, Vollenhoven envisioned writing nothing less than an entire history of Western Philosophy. He sketched out ideas for a ten-volume work and actually produced the first volume covering the fragments of the Pre-Socratics; published as the first volume of Gescheidenis der Wijsbegeerte: Deel I (History of Philosophy). This was to be the proof to the academic community and the government that he was competent to undertake the ambitious program of the full ten-volume work that he envisioned. In the mean time he carried a full teaching load of course offerings for undergraduate philosophy majors and graduate students in philosophy.

However, by the time his first volume appeared in 1950, his method was so innovative and unfamiliar that the editors, reviewers, and most of all the fellow academics in the field who sat on the committee to approve the government grants for "pure research" reacted negatively to his offering. Recovering from this keen disappointment4, Vollenhoven was nevertheless able to use his first volume as a textbook at the VU; and an American student of his, H. Evan Runner, later created an English translation in mimeo form to use as a course syllabus at Calvin College. There were also the better parts of two further volumes extant and a pile of notes for the later volumes, but at this point, Vollenhoven changed direction.