Bayle: Political Writings

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Cambridge University Press, Aug 3, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 367 pages
Pierre Bayle was one of the most important sceptical thinkers of the seventeenth century. His work was a major influence on the development of the ideas of Voltaire (who acclaimed it for its candour on such subjects as atheism, obscenity and sexual conduct), Hume, Montesquieu and Rousseau. Banned in France on first publication in 1697, Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique became a bestseller and ran into several editions and translations. Sally L. Jenkinson's masterly edition presents the reader with a coherent path through Bayle's monumental work (which ran to seven million words). This is volume selects political writings from Bayle's work and presents its author as a specifically political thinker. Sally L. Jenkinson's authoritative translation, careful selection of texts, and lucid introduction will be welcomed by scholars and students of the history of ideas, political theory, cultural history and French studies.

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Contents

VII
1
VIII
17
IX
29
X
36
XI
55
XII
64
XIII
79
XIV
93
XXII
192
XXIII
199
XXIV
209
XXV
231
XXVI
239
XXVII
247
XXVIII
251
XXIX
272

XV
118
XVI
128
XVII
136
XVIII
151
XIX
162
XX
172
XXI
180
XXX
286
XXXI
311
XXXII
312
XXXIII
320
XXXIV
343
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About the author (2000)

Born at Carla-le-Comte (now Carla-Bayle) in southern France, Pierre Bayle was the son of a French Protestant minister. Because of the persecution of the Huguenots in France, Bayle was forced to flee to Holland in 1681 where he lived the rest of his life. Bayle wrote a large number of works attacking all kinds of theological and philosophical theories and opposing all kinds of intolerance; he also edited one of the first major philosophical journals. Bayle's most widely known work is his immense four-folio Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697-1702), in which he developed a complete skepticism about everything that is said and everything that is done. Considered the Arsenal of the Enlightenment, the work greatly influenced Berkeley, Hume, and Voltaire.

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