Searching for the Dutch Corner in the Republic of Letters
Network Science and Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19488790 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Esther van Raamsdonk (Utrecht University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Publication date | 2026-06-04 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Cultural Analytics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2371-4549 • E-ISSN: 2371-4549 |
| Publisher | CA: Journal of Cultural Analytics (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.22148/jca.1101 |
| OpenAlex | W7163508523 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 20 |
This article has a twofold contribution. First, it offers a new way to consider communities that are conceptually and analytically difficult to define. This method has been based on the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein’s notion of ‘family resemblance’, applied here through a novel quantitative process, using an online knowledge base – Wikidata – and bespoke visualisations to identify communities in large epistolary datasets. A bipartite analysis based on shared characteristics, rather than evidenced personal connections, makes it possible to map a large community of individuals, revealing clusters of similarity and shared features. In a break from most existing applications of historical community detection, a different approach is used here, using a network object known as a multigraph, which allows characteristics to be viewed both as individual attributes and as parts of overlapping sets. Second, this article describes an application of this method to uncover a community that is often discussed but notoriously difficult to define and analyse: the Dutch ‘Republic of Letters’: this loose early modern sub-community included members from different denominations, professions, origins, and affiliations, but has been recognised qualitatively as a body of prolific and intellectually bonded individuals, with links within and beyond the United Provinces. In applying this method, we create a truer picture of how communities such as these operated and cohered, while avoiding reductive criteria for inclusion of such individuals. The uncovering of this particular Dutch community is a clear demonstration of the method in action and therefore offers a successful alternative to other community detection methods
Family resemblance · Inheritance (genetic algorithm) · The Republic · Cybernetics and Technology in Society · Philosophy, Science, and History · Wittgensteinian philosophy and applications
Impolite Learning
Statistical mechanics of complex networks
Fast unfolding of communities in large networks
Modularity and community structure in networks
John Milton’s Network and the Republic of Letters
The Republic of Letters as a Communication System
Religion, scholarship and archives in the early modern republic of letters
Isaac Vossius (1618-1689) between Science and Scholarship
| Highly cited | No |
|---|