Johannes Jacobus Poortman

Johannes Jacobus Poortman (Rotterdam, April 26, 1896 – The Hague, December 21, 1970), studied philosophy and psychology at Groningen University under Professor Gerardus Heymans. In 1919 he received his Master of Arts; many years later he would also earn a Ph.D.. He was also a theosophist.

Poortman studied at the universities of Hamburg, Geneva, the Sorbonne in Paris and at Vienna. From 1932 to 1938 he was member of the Council of the Dutch Society for Psychical Research. From 1958 to 1966 he was a Professor of metaphysics at the University of Leiden. After he retired his chair was successively occupied by Prof. Dubbink, Prof. van Vledder and Prof. Gerding.

Poortman was the maker of the Repertory of Dutch philosophers, Repertorium der Nederlandse Wijsbegeerte, which can be consulted on line at the site of the Leiden University.

He formulated the idea of a hylic pluralism (in Dutch hylisch pluralisme) of the plurality of matter, a model of the universe in which science and metaphysics are no longer contradictory. This vision was explained in his four volume work, Vehicles of Consciousness.

Poortman distinguished six different metaphysical views of the world, which he named from Alpha to Zeta.

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