Background
Bolland, Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus was born on June 9, 1854 in Groningen, The Nctherands.
Hegelian 'Realist ints: Theology political philosophy s°cial philosophy
Bolland, Gerardus Johannes Petrus Josephus was born on June 9, 1854 in Groningen, The Nctherands.
Aught at a primary school 1876. Studied English anguage and taught at a secondary school in Batavia, 1881-1896. Professor °‘ Philosophy, University of Leyden, from 1896.
Bolland originated from a Roman-Catholic family, but soon became an atheist. In the field of philosophy he was an autodidact, developing from an adherent of von Hartmann to a Hegelian philosopher. He had the ambition to be the Hegel of his time, to teach the real wisdom and he made philosophy speak ’hollands-bollands’. His interpretation of Hegelian philosophy was very systematic, more than historic or dialectical. He saw it as his duty to make the Hegelian system more perfect and in doing so he took part in the ever continuing process of absolute idealism. Bolland used as his tool a higher form of reasoning than the ‘low’ arguing of the understanding, coming near to a form of philosophical mysticism. He illustrated this ‘higher’ manner by playing with words and concepts and by using ambiguous terms. The ‘Idea’ is the highest unity and reality: in our reasoning we are able to reach this Idea and to understand our world as the explication of the Idea. Negations and dialectical contradictions are reconciled and have lost their power in the allincluding synthesis. This fixed system had its consequences in the socio-political field: it is the most conservative branch of Hegelianism. The existing world is the real world and is understood by means of the Idea. No change is desired, let alone a revolution; the existing powers are fully justified. Bolland strongly attacked all kinds of innovation: he was a declared enemy of socialism and of feminism. Had he lived longer, it is unquestionable that he would have adhered to fascism and Nazism. Many of his pupils later became National Socialists. I n theology his position is to be compared with the German school of Bruno Bauer, who denied the historicity of Jesus and considered Christian faith only as a lower representation of the higher philosophical idea. He also agreed with the 'Dutch radical school’ of theologians in their rejection of a historical ground for an eternal idea of divineness. The amount of polemic literature around Bolland’s philosophy is enormous; nearly all Dutch philosophers are engaged in these polemics. A pupil of Bolland wrote a dissertation about his philosophy: K. J. Pen (1922). After his death the ‘Bolland-Genootschap voor zuivere rede’ was founded (1922), a league of Bollandfollowcrs. with its philosophical journal De Idee (1923-1945); the ‘Bolland-Stiditing’ was founded in 1932, maintaining a special Chair of Philosophy at the University of Leyden. His followers also took the initiative to found the first international 'Hegel-Bund' (1930).