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Bayle and Early Modern Free Thought

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Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences

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Synonyms

Free thought; Spinoza

Introduction

Pierre Bayle (Le Carla [Ariège], 1647-Rotterdam, 1706) was born far from the hub of cultural life into the poor family of a Protestant minister, but this marginal situation nourished in him a passion for erudition such that he became a scholar of extraordinary breadth, a critical reader without equal, who carefully recorded his readings in alphabetical notebooks, which enabled him to compare historical narratives and confront philosophical systems with each other. Through his activity as a journalist in the Nouvelles de la république des lettres (1684–87) – which put him in contact with the Royal Society (Boyle) and the Académie française (Benserade) – he established his reputation throughout Europe as a subtle commentator and logician, able to keep religious polemics at a distance and to dissect mercilessly the philosophical systems of the novatores: all the great philosophers of the period (Malebranche, Leibniz, Locke) sought – in vain –...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Claude Longeon, IHRIM (CNRS UMR 5317), Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France

    Antony McKenna

Authors
  1. Antony McKenna
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Correspondence to Antony McKenna .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Dept. of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Ghent University Dept. Philosophy & Moral Sci, Ghent, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

Section Editor information

  1. Faculty of Philosophy, University of Bucharest, Bucharest, Romania

    Dana Jalobeanu

  2. Department of Philosophy and Moral Sciences, Sarton Centre for History of Science, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

    Charles T. Wolfe

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McKenna, A. (2020). Bayle and Early Modern Free Thought. In: Jalobeanu, D., Wolfe, C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Early Modern Philosophy and the Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_559-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20791-9_559-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20791-9

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