Adriaan Heereboord

Adriaan Heereboord (1613 to 1661) was a Dutch philosopher and logician, born and died in Leiden. A graduate of the University of Leiden, he held its chair of philosophy from 1643. He sympathised with the new thinking of Descartes but was also influenced by Petrus Ramus and Francis Bacon, and he clashed almost at once with Jacobus Revius and Adam Steuart, who stood for traditional metaphysics and theology. A combative drinker whose private life became the subject of pamphlets, he grew embattled within the university and in the end gave up his duties. His major works include the Collegium ethicum, Collegium logicum and Collegium physicum, the Meletemata philosophica of 1654 and the Philosophia naturalis, moralis, rationalis, and he edited Jan Makowski's Metaphysica.