From 'Theophrastus Redivivus’ to Du Marais. Origin of Secularization in the Underground Philosophy of Radical Enlightenment in France

Anna Budzanowska

doi:10.36280/afpifs.2021.4.18

Research article

From 'Theophrastus Redivivus’ to Du Marais. Origin of Secularization in the Underground Philosophy of Radical Enlightenment in France

Anna Budzanowska

Od „Theophrastus Redivivus” do Du Maraisa. Źródła laickości w podziemnej filozofii radykalnego Oświecenia we Francji

Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej, nr 4(29)/2021, s. 18-29

DOI 10.36280/afpifs.2021.4.18 ↗

Issue: nr 4(29)/2021
Pages: 18-29
Published: 2021
Article language: English

English

Abstract

The article describes the sources of anti-religious conceptions in French philosophical literature of Radical Enlightenment, based on secret symbolic manuscripts: Theophrastus Redivivus , Le Militaire philosophe , Lettre d’Hypocrate à Damagatte , La vie de Mahomed , Le traite sur les trois imposteurs , La Moysade and Le Philosophe , and aims to explore the radical approach to religion and faith of the following little-known French libertine thinkers, who were representatives of the so-called philosophie clandestine : B. Fontenelle, N. Malebranche, Y. de Vallone, Delaube, R. Challe, H. de Boulainvilliers. Discoveries related to French underground philosophical manuscripts attract the interest of researchers, changing the ideological picture of the Enlightenment. As it appears, underground thinkers – through the scope and radicalism of their ideas – made a so far unrecognized contribution to the not-so-distant age of encyclopaedism and the French Revolution. The libertine theories born in reaction to monarchical and clerical absolutism conceal contextual political and anti-Christian explicitness. Therefore, analyses of the approach to religion and faith expressed in underground philosophical texts allow us to classify them as anti-systemic. Undoubtedly, a great number of observations and recommendations of the secret philosophers was related to the search for understanding the entirety of human religiosity or to the need to articulate the universality of natural religion. However, French ideological continuators of the underground amateur philosophers, including eighteenth-century academics and encyclopaedists who referred to the underground anti-religious impulse, did not postulate introducing broadly-understood religious tolerance; on the contrary, they formulated theories that enabled the gradual removal of religiosity from the public sphere ( laïcité ). The article presents the idea of secularism in the radical underground Enlightenment movement and refers to the delayed consequences of said phenomenon, when this idea, considered politically dangerous, reappeared in political debates in the second half of the 19 th century, and eventually became la loi fondatrice of the republican France under the 1905 law.

Keywords

manuscrits philosophiques clandestins
philosophie clandestine
libertinism
French Radical Enlightenment
secularism

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References

41 reference entries

References

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Publication information

Author and affiliation

Anna Budzanowska

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8662-605X

Issue data

Issue nr 4(29)/2021

Pages: 18-29
Published: 2021
DOI: 10.36280/afpifs.2021.4.18
PDF: Full text PDF

AccessOtwarty LicenceCC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ↗

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A. Budzanowska, From 'Theophrastus Redivivus’ to Du Marais. Origin of Secularization in the Underground Philosophy of Radical Enlightenment in France, „Archiwum Filozofii Prawa i Filozofii Społecznej” nr 4(29)/2021, s. 18–29, DOI: 10.36280/afpifs.2021.4.18

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[ref-001] Barbier, A.A. (1823). Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes (vol. II). Paryż: Barrois l’Ainé.

[ref-002] Benitez, M. (1996). La Face cachée des Lumières: recherches sur les manuscrits philosophiques clandestins de l’âge classique. Paryż-Oksford.

[ref-003] Benitez, M. (2003). La cara oculta de las luces investigaciones sobre los manuscritos filosóficos clandestinos de los siglos XVII y XVIII. Walencja.

[ref-004] Bloch, O. (1971). La Philosophie de Gassendi. La Haye.

[ref-005] Bloch, O. (1993). Textes rassemblés, présentés et commentés. Libres pensée et littérature clandestine. Paryż-Oksford: Universitas/Voltaire Foundation.

[ref-006] Bloch, O. (2008). Voltaire et les manuscrits philosophiques clandestins. Paryż- Oksford: Universitas/Voltaire Foundation.

[ref-007] Boulanvilliers, H. (1730). La vie de Mahomed. Londyn.

[ref-008] Boulanvilliers, H. (1753). Lettre d’Hypocrate à Damagatte. Londyn.

[ref-009] Brogi, S. (1993). Il Cerchio dell'universo. Libertinismo, spinozismo e filosofia natura w Boulainvilliers. Florencja: Olschki.

[ref-010] Budzanowska A., Pietrzykowski T. (2020). Wokół procesu Dreyfusa. Jednostka – ideologia - polityka. Kraków: Copernicus Center Press.

[ref-011] Canziani, G., Paganini, G. (1981-1982). Theophrastus Redivivus. Florencja.

[ref-012] Cronk, N. (2008). Voltaire éditeur du Philosophe de Du Marais. In O. Bloch (ed.), Voltaire et les manuscrits philosophiques clanedstins. Paryż: PUF.

[ref-013] Deloffre, F., Moureau F. (2000). Difficultés sur la religion chretienne. In Coll.: Textes littéraires français. Genewa: Droz.

[ref-014] Dieckmann, H. (1948). Le Philosophe. texts and interpretation. Waszyngton: Washington University Press.

[ref-015] de Fontenelle, B. (1743). Nouvelles Liberté de penser. Amsterdam.

[ref-016] de Fontenelle, B. (2005). Traité de la liberté de l’âme. In Traité de la liberté: Des miracles et Des oracles. A. Niderst (ed.). Paryż-Oksford: Universitas/FoundationV oltaire.

[ref-017] Habermas, J. (2008). Between naturalism and Religion: The Challenge of Democracy. Paryż: Gallimard.

[ref-018] Israel, J.I. (2001). Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750. Oksford: Oksford University Press.

[ref-019] Israel, J.I. (2006). Enlightenment contested: Philosophy, modernity, and the emancipation of man, 1670-1752. Oksford: Oxford University Press.

[ref-020] Koselleck, R. (2012). Warstwy czasu: Studia z metahistorii. Warszawa: Oficyna Naukowa.

[ref-021] Krauss, W. (1962). L’enigme du Du Marais. Revue d’Histoire litteraire de la France 62, 514-522.

[ref-022] Labrousse, E. (1984). O’ Higgins (J.) Yves de Vallon – the making of an esprit-fort. Archives de sciences sociales des religions 57, 261-262.

[ref-023] Lanson, G. (1912). Questions diversessur l’histoire de l’esprit philosophique en France avant 1750. RHLF XIX, 293-317.

[ref-024] Löwith, K. (2002). Historia powszechna i dzieje zbawienia: Teologiczne przesłanki filozofii dziejów. Kęty: Antyk.

[ref-025] Malebranche, N. (1678). De la recherche de la vérité (4th ed.). Paryż: A. Plarald.

[ref-026] McKenna, A. (1996). Bilan et perspectives des recherches. XVIIe siècle. Les manuscrits philosophiques clandestins de l'Age Classique 192, 523-535.

[ref-027] O’Higgings, J. (1982). Yves de Vallon – the making of an esprit-fort. International archives of the history of the ideas 97, 306-310.

[ref-028] Paganini, G., Jacob, M.C., Laursen J.Ch. (2019). Clandestine Philosophie. New Studies on Subversive Manuscripts in Early Modern Europe. 1620- 1823. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

[ref-029] Roger, J. (1963). Les Sciences de la vie dans la pensée française du XVIIIe siècle. Paryż.

[ref-030] Said, E. (2003). L’Orientalisme. L’Orient créé par l’Occident. Paryż: Seuil.

[ref-031] Skrzypek, M. (1966). L’athéisme de Meslier. Euhemer 5, 45-54.

[ref-032] Skrzypek, M. (1982). La diffusion clandestine du matérialisme francais dans les Lumières polonaises. In O. Bloch (ed.), Le Matérialisme du XVIIIème siècle et la litterture clandestine. Paryż.

[ref-033] Skrzypek, M. (1989). Oświecenie francuskie a początki religioznawstwa. Warszawa.

[ref-034] Spink, J.S. (1960). French Free-thought from Gassendi to Voltaire. Londyn.

[ref-035] Spinoza, B. (1916). Traktat teologiczno-polityczny. Warszawa.

[ref-036] Szocik, K. (2013). Traktat o trzech oszustach: Mojżeszu, Jezusie i Mahomecie jako przykład radykalnej krytyki religii pozytywnych. Przegląd Filozoficzny – Nowa Seria 1, 128.

[ref-037] Torrey, N.L. (1938). The spirit of the Voltaire. Nowy Jork.

[ref-038] Voegelin, E. (1992). Nowa nauka polityki. Warszawa: Aletheia.

[ref-039] Voltaire. (1773). Les Lois de Minos. Genewa.

[ref-040] Voltaire. (2005). Le Siècle de Louis XIV. LGF: Paryż.

[ref-041] Wade, I.O. (1938). The Clandestine Organisation and Diffusion of Philosophic Ideas in France from 1700 to 1750. Princeton.

From 'Theophrastus Redivivus’ to Du Marais. Origin of Secularization in the Underground Philosophy of Radical Enlightenment in France

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Anna Budzanowska

Issue nr 4(29)/2021

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