ABSTRACT
As a Flemish Mennonite and key figure in Spinoza’s circle Pieter Balling was a flexible thinker negotiating between Mennonite beliefs, Collegiantism, vernacular rationalism, Cartesianism and Spinozism. This chapter examines Balling’s position in between those traditions and reconstructs his views regarding the relationship between language and reason expressed. Balling’s social circumstances and ideology are connected to the style and vocabulary of his translations of Spinoza’s early work. This analysis reveals a clear socio-linguistic difference between Balling’s pamphlets and his Spinoza translations. Balling’s intellectual fluidity required him to switch between different discourses with different linguistic conventions. He thus embodies the pragmatist attitude concerning language and reason that was typical to the translation culture of the Dutch Early Enlightenment.
