Before the parting of the ways: Nederlandse filosofen over geschiedenis en geschiedwetenschap, 1920-1970

Institutionally, the flourishing of Dutch philosophy of history after the 1970s was primarily connected with history programmes and departments. Dutch philosophers, on the other hand, have not shown much interest in philosophy of history in the past four decades. Before 1970 this situation was completely different: philosophy of history was an important theme in Dutch academic philosophy. It is sometimes assumed that philosophy of history in The Netherlands before the 1970s mainly involved speculation about the meaning of the historical process from a religious perspective. Most academic philosophers, however, rejected more speculative forms of philosophy of history, and focused on a critical analysis of the foundations of historiography. This article examines the work of four Dutch philosophers of history in the period between 1920 and 1970, Goedewaagen, Pos, Kuypers, and Beerling, and positions their work within the historical development of Dutch philosophy. The strong interest in philosophy of history before 1970 and its sudden disappearance thereafter is explained by the late occurrence in The Netherlands of the parting of the ways between analytic and continental philosophy.