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Jean-Baptiste-René Robinet
De la nature
A Amsterdam, chez E. Van Harrevelt, 1762 4 parties en 1 volume in-12 (17,5 x 10,5 cm) de XII-228, VI-284 pages. Reliure hollandaise de l'époque plein parchemin rigide, titre doré au dos, tranches mouchetées. Quelques légères et discrètes retouches à la reliure, intérieur frais. Rousseurs sur les gardes blanches. Rares rousseurs dans le texte. Nouvelle édition. Cet ouvrage a paru pour la première fois au format in-8 l'année précédente (1761 chez le même libraire). Publié anonymement, il a été rapidement attribué à Diderot, Helvétius et même Voltaire. L'auteur, un certain Robinet (âgé de seulement 27 ans), s'est fait connaître comme l'auteur de cet ouvrage dans le Journal des Savants en 1762. La Première Partie traite de l'équilibre nécessaire de biens et de maux dans la nature (elle occupe tout le premier tome et la moitié du volume). La Seconde Partie traite de la génération uniforme des êtres (pp. 1 à 146 du second tome). La Troisième Partie traite de l'instinct moral (pp. 147 à 190 du second tome). Enfin la Quatrième et dernière Partie traite de la physique des esprits (pp. 191 à 284 du second tome). Une seconde édition plus étendue a paru en 1763, mais dépouillée du prestige de l'anonymat, elle intéressa moins le public. L'édition définitive complète de De la Nature sera publiée en 1766 (d'autres éditions suivront). De la Nature a pourtant été mis à l'index le 9 septembre 1762 (année de notre édition) pour ses prises de positions matérialistes sur l'Âme et Dieu. Robinet formule dans cet ouvrage l’idée que les organismes vivants se transforment de manière à former une chaîne ininterrompue, idée qu’il développe dans ses Considérations philosophiques de la gradation des formes de l’être, ou les essais de la nature qui apprend à faire l’homme et dans son Parallèle de la condition et des facultés de l’homme avec la condition et les facultés des autres animaux, parus en 1768 et 1769. On assimile ainsi Robinet à l'un des précurseurs des théories transformistes telle qu'elles seront synthétisées plus tard par Charles Darwin. Il fut le continuateur de la grande Encyclopédie de Diderot et d'Alembert (il publia les Suppléments). "Jean-Baptiste Robinet, philosophe en partie éconduit par la postérité, publie à Amsterdam à partir de 1761, sous couvert de l'anonymat pour le premier tome, son ouvrage principal De la Nature, "livre capital" selon Hegel, représentatif de l'épistémè de l'âge classique selon Foucault. Cette oeuvre qui est un morceau étonnant de philosophie hylozoïste, adossé aux découvertes récentes des naturalistes, est également une entrée privilégiée dans les Lumières européennes : positionné entre Voltaire sur la question du mal et Diderot dont il commente les Pensées sur l'interprétation de la nature, le philosophe rennais tente en outre d'arbitrer le débat sur "l'ordre des choses" entre nominalisme et essentialisme. Il entre également dans le cercle des rédacteurs des Suppléments de l'Encyclopédie. À ces titres divers il s'inscrit, à la fois comme éditeur et philosophe, dans une nouvelle manière de faire de la philosophie comme pratique raisonnée des dictionnaires et comptes rendus des sociétés savantes. Soucieux de ne laisser aucune question dans l'ombre, y compris quand elle est mêlée de religion, il assume une critique radicale de l'anthropomorphisme, appuyée sur le commentaire de Bayle, ce qui contribue à le situer durablement, entre athéisme et matérialisme, du côté des pensées inclassables." (Jean-Baptiste Robinet, De la nature, édition critique par Françoise Badelon, Paris : Honoré Champion, coll. "L'âge des Lumières" n° 49, 2009, 2 vol. 632, 496 p. Présentation de l'éditeur). Bel exemplaire.
Reference : AMO-3176
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5 book(s) with the same title
BOURGERY, Jean-Marc ; BERNARD, Claude ; JACOB, Nicolas Henri ; DUCHAUSSOY, Dr.
Reference : 2789
(1866)
Traité complet de l'anatomie de l'Homme, comprenant la médecine chirurgicale et la médecine opératoire, avec planches lithographiées d'après nature. COLLECTION COMPLÈTE.
Paris, L. Guérin, 1866-1871. 9 Volumes in-folio + 1 Supplément. COMPLET. In-folio - 44 x 34 cm. Reliure de l'époque en demi-chagrin rouge à coins, dos à 4 nerfs orné de caissons à filets dorés. Ouvrage orné de 750 planches lithographiées en noir d'après nature par Jacob (726 gravures + 24 gravures in Supplément). Rehauts de couleur bleu et rouge pour différencier veines et artères sur quelques planches. Cette collection se divise ainsi : Tome 1 : Anatomie descriptive et physiologique. Appareil de relation. Organes de la locomotion. Ostéologie. Syndesmologie. 191 pages + 59 planches (N°1-59) ; Tome 2 : Appareil de locomotion. Myologie. Aponévrologie. 141 pages + 100 planches (N°60-159) ; Tome 3 : Appareil de relation. Névrologie ou organes de l'innervation. 341 pages + 115 planches [100 planches (N°1-100) + 15 bis] ; Tome 4 : Appareil de nutrition. Angéiologie. 162 pages + 98 planches [91 planches (N°1-91) + 7 bis] ; Tome 5 : Appareil de nutrition. Splanchnologie. 342 pages + 96 planches [76 planches (N°1-76) + 20 bis] ; Tome 6 : Sclérotomie. Ophtalmologie. Ténotomie (1e partie). 280 pages + 93 planches [91 planches + 2 bis] ; Tome 7 : Sclérotomie. Ophtalmologie. Ténotomie (2e partie). 356 pages + 98 planches [77 planches + 5 bis + 16 lettrées de A à P] ; Tome 8 : Embryogénie. 335 pages + 67 planches [60 planches (N°1-60) + 7 bissées] ; Suppléments, par le Dr Duchaussoy : 108 pages + 24 planches (1 déchirure restaurée page 31 sans manque de texte, 1 petit manque en marge dans la page de texte de la planche 19, sans conséquence pour le texte). Claude Bernard collabora à cette somme médicale à partir de 1845, en présentant des pièces anatomiques.
Quelques rousseurs et saines mouillures éparses sur la plupart des volumes, plusieurs charnières renforcées (mais les mors sont encore bien attachés et solides), d'infimes traces de frottement sur les reliures, sinon bel état de conservation pour ce monument de la médecine et de l'anatomie, superbement illustré, dans une belle et solide reliure d'époque. Jean-Baptiste Marc Bourgery, né à Orléans en 1797 et mort à Paris en 1849, entre à l’Ecole de médecine de Paris dès 1811. Elève brillant de Lamarck et Laennec, externe en 1815, interne l’année suivante, il obtient notamment, en 1819, la médaille d’or des hôpitaux de Paris. Après avoir exercé en tant qu’officier de santé dans une fonderie de cuivre près de Rouen, à l’issue de son internat, il retourne à Paris en 1827. Il soutient alors sa thèse de doctorat sur « l’emploi des ligatures circulaires des membres dans la plupart des maladies périodiques », qu’il dédie à Guillaume Dupuytren, son mentor. La parution de ces travaux, ainsi que celle d’un Traité de petite chirurgie (1828), rencontre un certain succès. C’est grâce au mécénat du baron Benjamin Delessert qu’il peut ensuite entreprendre, à partir de 1829, son œuvre majeure, le Traité complet de l’anatomie de l’homme, publié entre 1831 et 1854 (le dernier tome, à titre posthume), salué par ses pairs et de nombreuses personnalités intellectuelles et artistiques (Cuvier, Michelet, Delécluze, Claude Bernard, Hirschfeld…). Durant les vingt dernières années de sa vie, tout en se consacrant essentiellement à cet ouvrage monumental, il étudie la respiration, le système nerveux, les structures des poumons, du cœur, de la rate, de la thyroïde, etc. En outre, le docteur Félix Thibert lui avait confié la direction du Musée d’anatomie imitative, qu’il avait fondé rue du Montparnasse : il en réalise certaines pièces en carton-pâte, afin de préciser et moderniser les représentations de diverses lésions viscérales (jusqu’alors fabriquées en cire). Candidat malheureux à plusieurs postes ou fonctions de prestige, il confesse son amertume vis-à-vis de ce manque de reconnaissance dans le huitième volume du Traité (« Aujourd'hui, après vingt ans, je ne suis rien et je n'attends plus rien. J'en ai fini de cette révélation singulière: c'est le cri de vingt ans d'oppression qui m'échappe. Aussi je donne mon exemple à fuir, s'il se trouvait quelque imprudent prêt à se laisser séduire, comme je l'ai fait, par un amour inconsidéré de la science. Au moins, il apprendra de moi que l'ouvrage consciencieux ne mène à rien. Qu'on me pardonne cette plainte, c'est la première, ce sera aussi la dernière. » [pp. II-III]). Bourgery meurt à Passy, en juin 1849, à l’âge de 52 ans, victime du choléra. Nicolas-Henri Jacob (Paris,1782-1871), petit-fils de peintre et fils de menuisier, cousin du célèbre ébéniste Georges Jacob, est l’élève en peinture de Jacques-Louis David, en sculpture, de Dupasquier et Morgan. Entré au service d’Eugène de Beauharnais, à Milan, comme peintre de cour (entre 1805 et 1814), il se fait connaître également dans le dessin et la conception de mobilier, notamment pour Marie Desarnaud ou la duchesse de Berry. De retour en France, il ouvre en 1830 son propre cours de dessin à Paris, après avoir enseigné cet art à l’Ecole nationale vétérinaire d’Alfort. Néanmoins, il se passionne très tôt pour la lithographie, technique alors nouvelle, et expose fréquemment ses œuvres aux Salons sous la Restauration (Médaille d’or en 1834). De 1831 à 1854, il s’attelle à la réalisation des planches du Traité complet de l’anatomie de l’homme de Bourgery, devenant un véritable collaborateur scientifique : il dirige une équipe d’une vingtaine de dessinateurs et lithographes, dont Jean-Baptiste Leveillé et Charlotte Hublier (son épouse, peintre également). Il termine sa carrière en partageant son activité entre des expositions lors des Salons et l’illustration en lithographie d’ouvrages scientifiques. Il meurt à Paris, le 31 janvier 1871. - Clients Livre Rare Book : Les frais postaux indiqués sont ceux pour la France métropolitaine et la Corse, pour les autres destinations, merci de contacter la librairie pour connaître le montant des frais d'expédition, merci de votre compréhension. Livre Rare Book Customers : The shipping fees indicated are only for France, if you want international shipping please contact us before placing your order, thank you for your understanding. -
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La nature malade de la gestion. La gestion de la biodiversité ou la domination de la nature.
Sang De La Terre, 16 Octobre 2008. In-8° dense, broché, couverture ill., 239 pp., très bon état. Préface de Marie-Claude Terrasson. Epuisé.
A travers son expérience professionnelle et ses voyages naturalistes, Jean-Claude Génot nous révèle l'ambiguïté de notre relation à la nature. Il nous montre comment et pourquoi la gestion de la biodiversité parachève la domination de la nature par l'homme, comment sa protection est victime de la société technicienne. Une biodiversité écologiquement correcte, acceptée et jardinée. L'intervention dans la nature dite " protégée " est un tel dogme, que laisser faire la nature semble désormais une utopie. Pourtant l'urgence n'est pas de conserver la nature du passé, en créant des milieux ouverts faciles à entretenir. Il faut penser la nature de demain, celle des friches et des milieux boisés spontanés qui ont tant à nous apprendre sur la dynamique naturelle, celle des milieux forestiers anciens, très menacés, qui se récréent difficilement car il leur faut du temps, ce que nous avons oublié ! En fait, ce n'est pas la nature qui est véritablement malade mais l'homme, atteint par son obsession de contrôle, qui fait de la nature sa victime. Il ne faudra donc pas soigner la nature mais guérir l'homme de sa maladie obsessionnelle qui envisage la nature comme un milieu hostile à dominer et non comme un monde à part entière à respecter. Jean-Claude Génot est un écologue français né en 1956, ingénieur et docteur en écologie, connu pour son travail pionnier sur la naturalité des forêts et la protection de la nature sauvage. Il a été chargé de la protection de la nature au Syndicat mixte du Parc naturel régional des Vosges du Nord (Sycoparc) de 1982 jusqu'à sa retraite récente, où il a promu une gestion forestière non interventionniste favorisant la "libre évolution" des écosystèmes. Membre des Jeunes Naturalistes et Écologistes (JNE), vice-président de l'association Forêts Sauvages et conseiller scientifique pour l'association Francis Hallé (forêt primaire), il milite contre l'industrialisation des forêts françaises.Auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur la biodiversité vosgienne, Aldo Leopold ou François Terrasson (dont une biographie), il intervient en conférences sur le lynx, les forêts matures et la "loi forêt du plus fort". Exemples : Vosges-du-Nord grandeur nature (1995), Aldo Leopold, un pionnier de l'écologie (2019). Passionné par Robert Hainard, il défend une écologie radicale inspirée de penseurs comme Leopold. Franco de port France jusqu'à 29 euros iclus. PAYPAL immédiat. MONDIAL RELAY pour : FRANCE, Portugal, Pologne, Espagne, Allemagne, Autriche, Pays Bas, Luxembourg, Italie, Belgique. Toutes les étapes sont accompagnées. Achat, estimations et listages (Papiers, Archives, monographies, arts et métiers, sciences humaines et bibliophilie) France / Suisse (sur rdv).
Systeme de la Nature ou Des Loix du Monde Physique & du Monde Moral. 2 vols. - [""MAN IS OF ALL BEINGS THE MOST NECESSARY TO MAN""]
London, 1774. 8vo. 2 volumes uniformly bound in contemporary half calf with gilt ornamentation to spine. Spines with wear of boards miscoloured. Internally fine and clean. (16) 397 pp."" (4), 500, (3) pp. Wanting the frontispiece.
Later edition, published four years after the original, comprising ""The System of Nature"" - one of the most important works of natural philosophy ever written and the work that is considered the main work of materialism - and ""The Social System"", being d'Holbach's seminal ""social"" and political continuation of that groundbreaking work. D'Holbach (1723-1789), who was raised by a wealthy uncle, whom he inherited, together with his title of Baron, in 1753, maintained one of the most famous salons in Paris. This salon became the social and intellectual centre for the Encyclopédie, which was edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, whom he became closely connected with. D'Holbach himself also contributed decisively to the Encyclopédie, with at least 400 signed contributions, and probably as many unsigned, between 1752 and 1765. The ""Côterie holbachique"" or ""the café of Europe"", as the salon was known, attracted the most brilliant scientists, philosophers, writers and artists of the time (e.g. Diderot, d'Alembert, Helvetius, Voltaire, Hume, Sterne etc, etc.), and it became one of the most important gathering-places for the exchange of philosophical, scientific and political views under the ""ancient régime"". Apart from developing several foundational theories of seminal scientific and philosophical value, D'Holbach became known as one of the most skilled propagators and popularizers of scientific and philosophical ideas, promoting scientific progress and spreading philosophical ideas in a new and highly effective manner. As the theories of d'Holbach's two systematic works were at least as anticlerical and unaccepted as those of his smaller tracts, and on top of that so well presented and so convincing, it would have been dangerous for him to print any of them under his own name, and even under the name of the city or printer. Thus, ""Systême de la Nature"" appeared pseudonomously under the name of the secretary of the Académie Francaise, J.B. Mirabaud, who had died 10 years earlier, and under a fictive place of printing, namely London instead of Amsterdam. ""He could not publish safely under his own name, but had the ingenious idea of using the names of recently dead French authors. Thus, in 1770, his most famous book, ""The System of Nature"", appeared under the name Jean-Baptiste Mirabaud"" (PMM 215), and so the next ""System"" also appeared in the same manner three years later. D'Holbach was himself the most audacious philosophe of this circle. During the 1760's he caused numerous anticlerical tracts (written in large, but not entirely, by himself) to be clandestinely printed abroad and illegally circulated in France. His philosophical masterpiece, the ""Système de la nature, ou des lois du monde physique et du monde moral"", a methodological and intransigent affirmation of materialism and atheism, appeared anonymously in 1770"" (D.S.B. VI:468), as did the social and political follow-up of it, the famous ""Systême social"" in 1773. That is to say, Mirabeau whom he had used as the author on the ""System of Nature"" in 1770 is not mentioned in the ""Social System"", on the title-page of which is merely stated ""By the Author of ""Systême de la Nature"". In his main work, the monumental ""Système de la Nature"", d'Holbach presented that which was to become one of the most influential philosophical theories of the time, combined with and based on a complex of advanced scientific thought. He postulated materialism, and that on the basis of science and empiricism, on the basis of his elaborate picture of the universe as a self-created and self-creating entity that is constituted by material elements that each possess specific energies. He concludes, on the basis of empiricism and the positive truths that the science of his time had attained, that ideas such as God, immortality, creation etc. must be either contradictory or futile, and as such, his materialism naturally also propounded atheism"" his theory of the universe showed that nature is the product of matter (eternally in motion and arranged in accordance with mechanical laws), and that reality is nothing but nature. Thus, having in his ""Systême de la Nature"" presented philosophical materialism in an actual system for the first time and having created a work that dared unite the essence of all the essential material of the English and French Enlightenment and incorporate it into a closed materialistic system, d'Holbach had provided the modern world with a moral and ethic philosophy, the effects of which were tremendous. It is this materialism and atheism that he continues three years later in his next systematic work ""Systême social"", through which politics, morality, and sociology are also incorporated into his system and take the place of the Christianity that he had so fiercely attacked earlier on. In this great work he extends his ethical views to the state and continues the description of human interest from ""Systême de la Nature"" by developing a notion of the just state (by d'Holbach called ""ethocracy"") that is to secure general welfare. ""Système social (1773"" ""Social System"") placed morality and politics in a utilitarian framework wherein duty became prudent self-interest."" (Encyclopaedia Brittanica). ""Holbach's foundational view is that the most valuable thing a person seeking self-preservation can do is to unite with another person: ""Man is of all beings the most necessary to man"" (Sysème social, 76"" cf. Spinoza's Ethics IVP35C1, C2, and S). Society, when it is just, unites for the common purpose of preservation and the securing of welfare, and society contracts with government for this purpose."" (SEP). Both works had a sensational impact. For the first time, philosophical materialism is presented in an actual system, and with the second of them, this system also comprised politics and sociology, a fact which became essential to the influence and spreading of this atheistic scientific-philosophical strand. The effects of the works were tremendous, and the consequences of their success were immeasurable, thus, already in the years of publication, both works were confiscated. The ""Système de la Nature"" was condemned to burning by the Parisian parliament in the year of its publication"" the ""Système social"" was on the list of books to be confiscated already in 1773, and it was placed on the Index of the Church in August 1775. Both works are thus scarce. In spite of their condemnation, and in spite of the reluctance of contemporary writers to acknowledge the works as dangerous (as Goethe said in ""Dichtung und Wahrheit"": ""Wir begriffen nicht, wie ein solches Buch gefährlich sein könnte. Es kam uns so grau, so todtenhaft vor""), the ""Systems"" and d'Holbach's materialism continued its influence on philosophic, political and scientific thought. In fact, it was this materialism that for Marx became the social basis of communism. ""In the ""Système"" Holbach rejected the Cartesian mind-body dualism and attempted to explain all phenomena, physical and mental, in terms of matter in motion. He derived the moral and intellectual faculties from man's sensibility to impressions made by the external world, and saw human actions as entirely determined by pleasure and pain. He continued his direct attack on religion by attempting to show that it derived entirely from habit and custom. But the Systeme was not a negative or destructive book: Holbach rejected religion because he saw it as a wholly harmful influence, and he tried to supply a more desirable alternative. ""(Printing and the Mind of Man, 215). ""In keeping with such a naturalistic conception of tings, d'Holbach outlined an anticreationalist cosmology and a nondiluvian geology. He proposed a transformistic hypothesis regarding the origins of the animal species, including man, and described the successive changes, or new emergences, of organic beings as a function of ecology, that is, of the geological transformation of the earth itself and of its life-sustaining environment. While all this remained admittedly on the level of vague conjecture, the relative originality and long-term promise of such a hypothesis -which had previously been broached only by maillet, Maupertuis, and Diderot- were of genuine importance to the history of science. Furthermore, inasmuch as the principles of d'Holbach's mechanistic philosophy ruled out any fundamental distinction between living an nonliving aggregates of matter, his biology took basic issue with both the animism and the vitalism current among his contemporaries...This closely knit scheme of theories and hypotheses served not merely to liberate eighteenth-century science from various theological and metaphysical empediments, but it also anticipated several of the major directions in which more than one science was later to evolve. Notwithstanding suchprecursors as Hobbes, La Mttrie, and Diderot, d'Holbach was perhaps the first to argue unequivocally and uncompromisingly that the only philosophical attitude consistent with modern science must be at once naturalistic and antisupernatural."" (D.S.B. VI:469).
Système social, ou principes naturels de la morale et de la politique, avec un examen de l'influence du gouvernement sur les moeurs. Par l'Auteur du Systême de la Nature [Mirabaud]. 3 Tomes. - [THE SYSTEM OF NATURE CONTINUED... THE SOCIAL SYSTEM]
London [recte: Amsterdam, M.M. Rey], 1773. 8vo. Bound in one beautiful contemporary full mottled calf binding with five raised bands to richly gilt spine triple gilt line-borders to boards and inner gilt dentelles. Edges of boards with single gilt line. All edges gilt. Corners abit bumped and a bit of overall wear. Inner hinges a bit weak. Internally very fine and clean. All in all a very fine copy indeed. (4), 210176" 167 pp. With all three half-titles, all three title-pages and all three indexes, as well as the introduction.
The rare first edition, first issue (though Tchermerzine mentions an unknown 2-volume-edition form the same year - this edition has never been verified), of one of d'Holbach's most important works, his influential ""social"" and political continuation of his seminal main work ""Systeme de la nature"" - the bible of materialism. D'Holbach (1723-1789), who was raised by a wealthy uncle, whom he inherited, together with his title of Baron, in 1753, maintained one of the most famous salons in Paris. This salon became the social and intellectual centre for the Encyclopédie, which was edited by Diderot and d'Alembert, whom he became closely connected with. D'Holbach himself also contributed decisively to the Encyclopédie, with at least 400 signed contributions, and probably as many unsigned, between 1752 and 1765. The ""Côterie holbachique"" or ""the café of Europe"", as the salon was known, attracted the most brilliant scientists, philosophers, writers and artists of the time (e.g. Diderot, d'Alembert, Helvetius, Voltaire, Hume, Sterne etc, etc.), and it became one of the most important gathering-places for the exchange of philosophical, scientific and political views under the ""ancient régime"". Apart from developing several foundational theories of seminal scientific and philosophical value, D'Holbach became known as one of the most skilled propagators and popularizers of scientific and philosophical ideas, promoting scientific progress and spreading philosophical ideas in a new and highly effective manner. D'Holbach was himself the most audacious philosophe of this circle. During the 1760's he caused numerous anticlerical tracts (written in large, but not entirely, by himself) to be clandestinely printed abroad and illegally circulated in France. His philosophical masterpiece, the ""Système de la nature, ou des lois du monde physique et du monde moral"", a methodological and intransigent affirmation of materialism and atheism, appeared anonymously in 1770"" (D.S.B. VI:468), as did the social and political follow-up of it, the famous ""Systême social"" in 1773. That is to say, Mirabeau whom he had used as the author on the ""System of Nature"" in 1770 is not mentioned in the ""Social System"", on the title-page of which is merely stated ""By the Author of ""Systême de la Nature"". As the theories of d'Holbach's two systematic works were at least as anticlerical and unaccepted as those of his smaller tracts, and on top of that so well presented and so convincing, it would have been dangerous for him to print any of them under his own name, and even under the name of the city or printer. Thus, ""Systême de la Nature"" appeared pseudonomously under the name of the secretary of the Académie Francaise, J.B. Mirabaud, who had died 10 years earlier, and under a fictive place of printing, namely London instead of Amsterdam. ""He could not publish safely under his own name, but had the ingenious idea of using the names of recently dead French authors. Thus, in 1770, his most famous book, ""The System of Nature"", appeared under the name Jean-Baptiste Mirabaud."" (PMM 215), and so the next ""System"" also appeared in the same manner three years later.In his ""Systême de la Nature"", d'Holbach had presented philosophical materialism in an actual system for the first time and had created a work that dared unite the essence of all the essential material of the English and French Enlightenment and incorporate it into a closed materialistic system"" on the basis of a completely materialistic and atheistic foundation, he provided the modern world with a moral and ethic philosophy, the effects of which were tremendous. It is this materialism and atheism that he continues three years later in his next systematic work ""Systême social"", through which politics, morality, and sociology are also incorporated into his system and take the place of the Christianity that he had so fiercely attacked earlier on. In this great work he extends his ethical views to the state and continues the description of human interest from ""Systême de la Nature"" by developing a notion of the just state (by d'Holbach calle ""ethocracy"") that is to secure general welfare. ""Système social (1773"" ""Social System"") placed morality and politics in a utilitarian framework wherein duty became prudent self-interest."" (Encyclopaedia Brittanica). ""Holbach's foundational view is that the most valuable thing a person seeking self-preservation can do is to unite with another person: ""Man is of all beings the most necessary to man"" (Sysème social, 76"" cf. Spinoza's Ethics IVP35C1, C2, and S). Society, when it is just, unites for the common purpose of preservation and the securing of welfare, and society contracts with government for this purpose."" (SEP).As the ""Systême de la Nature"" had been condemned to burning in the year of its publication, so the ""Systême social"" was on the list of books to be confiscated already in 1773, and it was placed on the Index of the Church in August 1775. As the ""Systême de la Nature"", the ""Systême social"" is thus also of great scarcity. Another edition of the work appeared later the same year, in 12mo. Tchermerzine says that ""Il ya une édition, que nous ne connaissons pas, en 2 vol. in-8. C'est sans doute l'originale."" The present edition was reprinted the following year, in 1774.Tschermerzine VI:246" Graesse III:317 Barbier IV:622 (only listing later editions).
Erster Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie. Zum Behuf seiner Vorlesungen + Einleitung zu seinem Entwurf eines Systems der Naturphilosophie. Oder: Ueber den Begriff der speculativen Physik und die innere Organisation eines Systems dieser Wissens... - [THE PHILOSOPHY OF NATURE]
Jena und Leipzig, Christian Ernst Gabler, 1799. 8vo. Bound in one cont. marbled cardboardbdg. Spine soiled and worn at hinges and capitals, w. a bit of loss. Cont annotations to fly leaf. Old discrete owner's name to title-page, dated 1809. Four leaves w. cont. marginal annotations and underlinings. Internally well-preserved. (2), 83, (1, errata), (2, -blank) + (4), 321, (1, -Verbesserungen) pp.
Scarce first editions of these two fundamental works of Shelling's philosophy of nature. In his early works (1795-1800), Schelling sets out to give a new account of nature, and his ""Erster Entwurf..."" together with the ""Einleitung..."" for it are placed at the centre of this attempt. At the basis of his philosophy of nature is the status that Kant had given nature, but Schelling tries to avoid some of the consequences that come with Kant's notion. He is also largely inspired by Fichte's transcendental philosophy, and in the last five years of the 19th century, Schelling is thus occupied with the relationship of the subject to the object world, -a theme that comes to found the basis for his so famous philosophy of nature. At first Fichte and Schelling stood on good terms, but as their different conceptions of nature became evident, the divergences between them became too great. As Fichte regarded nature as Not-Self, this could not be a valid subject of philosophy, and he refused to understand Schelling's philosophy of nature as complementary to his own transcendental philosophy.Schelling's philosophy of nature presents us with a modern hermeneutic view of nature, allowing nature to be of significance beyond what can be scientifically established about it. Along with J.G. Fichte and Hegel, Schelling ranks as the most influential thinker of German Idealism. He stands in the centre of this most important and influential of philosophical traditions, and with his philosophy of nature, his anti-Cartesian view of subjectivity and his later critique of Hegelian Idealism, Schelling continues to be of the utmost importance to the development of continental philosophy to this day.
