Filosofare liberamente a Leida: Adriaan Heereboord, Johannes de Raey, Henricus Bornius

In the mid-seventeenth century in Leiden, themes developed in different thoughoften close intellectual environments converged around the claim of the libertas philosophandi. Among them, we can find the search for the autonomy of philosophy from theology; the refusal the faithfulness to Aristotelian dictates; the development of a confessional identity affecting philosophy; the commitment to Cartesian thought, caused by purely intellectual reasons or by choices involving academic politics. Such is the background, enhanced by elements concerning mostly the reflection upon the relationship between religious and civil authorities, on which Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-politicus will stand out shortly thereafter