Willem van Blijenbergh was a Dutch grain broker and amateur Calvinist theologian. He was born and lived in Dordrecht

Dordrecht

Dordrecht , colloquially Dordt, historically in English named Dort, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, located in the province of South Holland. It is the fourth largest city of the province, having a population of 118,601 in 2009...

. He engaged in philosophical correspondence with Baruch Spinoza

Baruch Spinoza

Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...

 regarding the problem of evil

Evil

Evil is the violation of, or intent to violate, some moral code. Evil is usually seen as the dualistic opposite of good. Definitions of evil vary along with analysis of its root motive causes, however general actions commonly considered evil include: conscious and deliberate wrongdoing,...

. Their correspondence consisted of four letters each, written between December 1664 to June 1665. Blijenbergh visited Spinoza at his home in June, after which their correspondence ended.

Further reading

• Deleuze, Gilles, Spinoza - Philosophie pratique (1970, 2nd ed. 1981). Trans. Spinoza: Practical Philosophy
  Spinoza: Practical Philosophy
  Spinoza: Practical Philosophy is a 1970 book by Gilles Deleuze concerned with the explanation of Spinoza's philosophy of The Ethics. It was Deleuze's last work published before his collaboration with Félix Guattari on Anti-Oedipus and it presents the formal Spinozist environment in which his later...
  
  (1988).
• Spinoza, Benedictus de, "The Letters", Steven Barbone (Introduction), Lee Rice (Introduction), Jacob Adler (Introduction), Samuel Shirley (Translator), Hackett Publishing Company (1995)

External links

• The Letters - Dedicated to Spinoza's Insights