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D’Holbach’s Natural Philosophy and the Atheism

  • Korean Review of French History
  • Abbr : KRFH
  • 2012, (26), pp.117~136
  • Publisher : KOREAN SOCIETY FOR FRENCH HISTORY
  • Research Area : Humanities > History

EungJong Kim 1

1충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to examine the characteristics of the atheism of D’Holbach. It is out of doubt that he is atheist. Before him, Spinoza is a systematic atheist like him. But Spinoza admits the existence of a God, so that he doesn’t accept that he is criticized as atheist. D’Holbach denies not only the existence of God, but he is also an anti-God and an anti-Religion. For him, the only thing that exists is the nature. The elements of the nature are connected by the chains of causes and effects. Its movement is made by the law of nature. Nothing exists out of the nature. Therefore, the God doesn’t exist. This material atheism is not his original thought. It dates from the natural philosophy of the ancient era. More directly, it is influenced on the one hand by the natural philosophies of Descartes and Newton, on the other hand by the dynamic materialism of his friend Diderot. D’Holbach exposes his thought, dangerous for his time, in a simple and systematic way, to the extent that he doesn’t even suppose the existence of ‘the supreme being’ which is the deistic God. It is therefore important for the humans to understand the nature and to live following the law of nature. D’Holbach advises us to live for the happiness in this world, rather than to live servilely for the salvation in the world to come. In this sense, he can be considered epicurean. As for him, the human happiness and the social peace are not dependent on the religion but on the monarch. Though his religious thought is revolutionary, his political thought is as conservative as that of the philosophes of the Enlightenment.

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