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Pierre Bayle

Pierre BaylePierre Bayle (1647-1706).

Table of Contents

  • 1 Ideas
  • 2 Biography
  • 3 Major Works of Pierre Bayle
    • 3.1 Related:
  • 4 Videos
  • 5 Related Products
    • 5.1 Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections (Hackett Classics)
    • 5.2 Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet
    • 5.3 Bayle: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)
    • 5.4 A Philosophical Commentary on these Words of The Gospel, Luke 14:23
    • 5.5 Miscellaneous Reflections Occasion'd by the Comet which Appear'd in December 1680: Chiefly Tending to Explode Popular Superstitions
    • 5.6 Pierre Bayle's Reformation: Conscience and Criticism on the Eve of the Enlightenment
    • 5.7 Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique Pour Servir De Supplément Ou De Continuation Au Dictionnaire De M. Pierre Bayle... (French Edition)
    • 5.8 The Dictionary Historical and Critical of Mr. Peter Bayle, Volume 1
    • 5.9 Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique de Pierre Bayle; Tome 9 (French Edition)
    • 5.10 Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique De Pierre Bayle, Volume 11... (French Edition)

Ideas

– All theories – philosophical, theological, and even scientific – can be challenged by arguments that show they are contradictory and/or unbelievable.

– Since no beliefs can be proved to be true or false, all should be tolerated.

– Morality is completely separate from religious belief; a society of atheists could be more moral than a society of Christians.

– Careful unprejudiced erudition and exact reasoning are needed to eliminate the errors of the past and present.

– Within a Christian frame of reference there is no way of explaining the existence of evil.

Biography

Born in 1647, the son of a protestant minister, Pierre Bayle wrote his first philosophical text as a student in the Jesuit college of Toulouse, a few months after his conversion to Catholicism (1669). But he returned to the religion of his fathers as soon as he finished his philosophy year. He moved then to Geneva, where he remained until 1673.

In 1675, Bayle became professor of philosophy at the Calvinist academy of Sedan, where he wrote his handbook of philosophy and the Objections against the Cartesian Pierre Poiret (1679). Having left Sedan shortly before the suppression of the Academy, Bayle moved to Rotterdam, where he taught history and philosophy at the Ecole illustre. In 1682 he published the Pensées diverses sur la comète, a subtle analysis of popular superstition, followed one year later by the Critique générale de l’histoire du calvinisme de M. Maimbourg, a strong defence of French protestantism, which was condemned by Catholic authorities and burnt in the place de Grève in Paris.

In 1684, Bayle founded the Nouvelles de la République des Lettres, the most influential literary and philosophical review of that time. After the revocation of the Edict of Nantes (1685), he strongly attacked religious intolerance and defended the “rights of the erring conscience” in his Commentaire philosophique (1686). The work was condemned by all Protestant theologians, including the orthodox Pierre Jurieu and the moderate Elie Saurin; they both looked at it as an eulogy of religious disbelief.

In 1690, Bayle published the Avis aux réfugiés, a sharp critique of the political attitude of French Protestant refugees in Holland. Bayle was reported by Jurieu to the religious and political authorities of Rotterdam, who dismissed him from his charge at the Ecole illustre. From then on, Bayle gave up any form of political engagement, and dedicated himself to a new project: the writing of the Dictionnaire historique et critique, his most famous work, which appearead at the end of 1696.

Bayle’s late years were devoted to a new edition of the Dictionnaire (1702) and to harsh controversies with theologians such as Jean Le Clerc, Isaac Jaquelot and Jaques Bernard. In the Continuation des pensées diverses (1704), Bayle showed the impossibility of answering the atheists’ objections against theology, both from a moral and a theoretical point of view.

He died in Rotterdam in 1706, declaring again his faith in God’s goodness and mercy.

Major Works of Pierre Bayle

– Thoughts on the Comet (1682)
– Philosophical Commentary on the Words of Jesus, ‘Constrain them to come in’ (1686)
– The Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697, 1702)
– Response to the Questions of a Country Gentleman (1703)

Related:

  • Pierre Gassendi
  • Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  • Pierre-Maurice Duhem
  • Desiderius Erasmus
  • John Calvin

  • Videos

  • Related Products

     
    Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections (Hackett Classics)

    Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections (Hackett Classics)

    • HACKETT
    • Bayle, Pierre (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 496 Pages - 02/27/1991 (Publication Date) - Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet

    Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Bayle, Pierre (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 380 Pages - 05/18/2000 (Publication Date) - State University of New York Press (Publisher)
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    Bayle: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

    Bayle: Political Writings (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought)

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Bayle/Jenkinson (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 440 Pages - 08/15/2000 (Publication Date) - Cambridge University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    A Philosophical Commentary on these Words of The Gospel, Luke 14:23

    A Philosophical Commentary on these Words of The Gospel, Luke 14:23

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Hardcover Book
    • Bayle, Pierre (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 664 Pages - 12/01/2005 (Publication Date) - Liberty Fund Inc. (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Miscellaneous Reflections Occasion'd by the Comet which Appear'd in December 1680: Chiefly Tending to Explode Popular Superstitions

    Miscellaneous Reflections Occasion'd by the Comet which Appear'd in December 1680: Chiefly Tending to Explode Popular Superstitions

    • Amazon Kindle Edition
    • Pierre Bayle (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 05/23/2018 (Publication Date) - HardPress (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Pierre Bayle's Reformation: Conscience and Criticism on the Eve of the Enlightenment

    Pierre Bayle's Reformation: Conscience and Criticism on the Eve of the Enlightenment

    • Used Book in Good Condition
    • Hardcover Book
    • Tinsley, Barbara Sher (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 476 Pages - 04/01/2001 (Publication Date) - Fairleigh Dickinson University Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique Pour Servir De Supplément Ou De Continuation Au Dictionnaire De M. Pierre Bayle... (French Edition)

    Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique Pour Servir De Supplément Ou De Continuation Au Dictionnaire De M. Pierre Bayle... (French Edition)

    • Charvin (Author)
    • French (Publication Language)
    • 918 Pages - 03/26/2019 (Publication Date) - Wentworth Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    The Dictionary Historical and Critical of Mr. Peter Bayle, Volume 1

    The Dictionary Historical and Critical of Mr. Peter Bayle, Volume 1

    • Hardcover Book
    • Bayle, Pierre (Author)
    • English (Publication Language)
    • 970 Pages - 08/31/2015 (Publication Date) - Palala Press (Publisher)
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    Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique de Pierre Bayle; Tome 9 (French Edition)

    Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique de Pierre Bayle; Tome 9 (French Edition)

    • Bayle, Pierre 1647-1706 (Author)
    • French (Publication Language)
    • 608 Pages - 08/25/2016 (Publication Date) - Wentworth Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
     
    Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique De Pierre Bayle, Volume 11... (French Edition)

    Dictionnaire Historique Et Critique De Pierre Bayle, Volume 11... (French Edition)

    • Bayle, Pierre (Author)
    • French (Publication Language)
    • 690 Pages - 03/24/2012 (Publication Date) - Nabu Press (Publisher)
    Check Price on Amazon
  • Last update 2020-06-17. Price and product availability may change.

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