On learning what to perceive in the structure of societies: The instructive index finger to Ludvig Holberg, coming from Bergen in Norway!

Ludvig Holberg was professor in metaphysics and logic and Latina oratio and history by the University of Copenhagen, but he is at least as much known as playwright and author. He also made the foundation for international laws and right as an academic subject in Denmark-Norway!

Ludvig Holberg (1684–1754) is the most central and the most known Danish-Norwegian author from the 1700s. He was a champion for the Enlightenment, and he was engaged that the society in question had to be based on reason and on science. He wrote many texts about jurisprudence, language and morals, as well as drama and epistles, and he learned us what to think and to dwell with in different societies. And what you are as a human is dependent on yourself and your environments, and that what we are are dependent on the fact that we are born different places, the growing up, and the influences we later on get in the societies where we are. But you can justify yourself from time to time to be nothing and to be shiny in human nature and in nature. Ludvig Holberg wrote satires that would teach us something. And many things in societies, also in political life, are about issues in societies, and they are often perceived as funny although they are seriously as they just are perceiving from anyone being engaged with perception of different things, and what we perceive can be right, or it can be wrong.

Holberg was the youngest of six brothers. His father, Christian Nielsen Holberg, died before Ludvig was one year old. He was educated in Copenhagen, and was a teacher at the University of Copenhagen for many years. At the same time, he started his successful career as an author, writing the first of a series of comedies.

He began to study theology at the University of Copenhagen and later taught himself law, history and language. He was not particularly interested in theology as a career, settling for an attestats (similar to a Bachelor's degree today), which gave him the right to work as a priest; he did not attempt a baccalaureus, magister or doctorate in the subject, nor did he follow a career as a theology professor, priest, or bishop. In Holberg's youth, it was common to study theology and specialize according to one's degree, for example in Greek, Latin, philosophy or history. For the purpose of becoming a lawyer, it was normal to study abroad. In 1736 the Danish Lawyer degree was established at the University of Copenhagen, a degree which continued to be granted for 200 years, and for which Holberg's writings remained common reading material throughout this time. Holberg was formally appointed assistant professor after having first worked as one without pay. He had to accept the first available position, which was teaching metaphysics. Later, he became a professor and taught rhetoric and Latin. Finally, he was given a professorship in the subject which he prized most and was most productive in, history. The more we know, the less we know for sure. And this means that Ludvig Holberg was productive, and that many things can be put under the microscope and must not be immediately accepted. And we determine ourselves what to know and why and how, and we cannot be in accordance with everybody, since perception and background differ, and since also the speed of perception differs, and what we have done to every time is not necessarily the same as other people have done. But we are doing similar and different things in life, and what we are are dependent on which persons and which environments we are fronting, and what this is doing with us. We cannot to any time, define what life should be and not be, but we should dare to live, and make the choices that we just like and are convenient and comfortable with.

Holberg was well-educated and well-traveled. In his adolescence, he visited large cities in countries such as the Netherlands and France, and lived for a short period of time in Rome; and for a longer period of time in Oxford, England (1706–1708), which was rare during that time as intellectual life was centered in continental Europe. He was not formally admitted to Oxford University, but spent his time there using the libraries and participating in Latin discussions with the English students. And the most known piece from Ludvig Holberg, writing in the most genres, is perhaps «Erasmus Montanus». And here we are meeting what we are calling a logical syllogism. And the most known statement is: «A stone cannot fly, Mother Nille cannot fly, therefore Mother Nille is a stone!». And this statement and philosophy is typical for Ludvig Holberg, making the small things to become a large one.

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Sverre Larsen

Kristiansand, Norway

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