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Système de la nature, Ou des loix du monde physique & du monde moral. Par M. Mirabaud. Sécretaire perpétuel, & l'un des quarante de l'Académie Françoise. Nouvelle Édition. Premiere Partie [- Seconde Partie].
A Londres, 1781. 2 volumes. (12), 316, pp.; (4), 385, (3) pp. 8vo. Contemporary marbled calf, spines gilt with raised bands, gilt triple fillet on sides, all edges gilt. Vercruysse 1781-A1. This is Holbach's most famous work (and in which he was very likely assisted by Diderot) and expounds a complete theorie of materialism.Holbach contributed some four hundred articles to the Encyclopédie of his lifelong friend and colleague Denis Diderot. Diderot, d'Alembert, Helvetius, Voltaire and others of the philosophes met frequently for dinner and philosophical discussion at the Baron's house, which became known as 'the café of Europe' (among foreign visitors were Wilkes, Hume and Sterne). 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. Holbach rejected religion because he saw it as a wholly harmful influence, and he tried to supply a desirable alternative. In fact he outlined a whole ethical and political philosophy, which he expanded in his later works.Holbach may not have been a great original thinker (his important ideas can already be found in predecessors such as Hobbes, Locke and La Mettrie), but by combining various elements in their thought and pressing it to the logical conclusion he reached the most extreme position in eighteenth-century free-thought. In fact, the present book caused a rift in the ranks of the philosophes, dividing them between deists and atheists, and even provoked Voltaire to reply in defense of religion.The pages 339-385 contain l'Abrégé du code de la nature and the Réquisitoire du 18 août 1770. - A very good copy.
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Phone number : 31 20 698 13 75
Système social, ou Principes naturels de la morale et de la politique. Avec un examen de l'influence du gouvernement sur les moeurs.
Londres (Amsterdam, M.M. Rey), 1773. 3 volumes in 1. viii, 218, (2) pp.; (4), 174, (2) pp.; (4), 166, (2) pp. 8vo. Contemporary calf, spine richly gilt with leather labels and gilt lettering, gilt triple line fillet on sides, lightly worn. Vercruysse 1773-A4; Naville 419; Thomas, Checklist, 78; Kress S.4739; Goldsmiths 10952; Einaudi 2911; Higgs 5873; R. Darnton, The Corpus of Clandestine Literature in France, 1769-1789, 662. First edition. Paul-Henri Dietrich Thiery d'Holbach (1723-1789), the formemost exponent of atheistic materialism and the most intransigent polemicist against religion in the Enlightenment. On settling in Paris, Holbach had associated with the younger philosophes who, with Diderot, d'Alembert and Rousseau, were grouping around the Encyclopédie, to which he also became a major contributor. His Salon soon became the main social center, and a sort of intellectual headquarters, for the Encyclopedist movement. Among those attending were Diderot, Grimm, Helvétius, d'Alembert, Rousseau, Boulanger, Condillac, Naigeon, Turgot, and Condorcet. The Baron also counted among his acquaintances many foreigners, notably Hume, Gibbon, Smith, Priestley, Walpole, Garrick, Sterne, Beccaria and Franklin. It is little surprizing that Holbach was also known as le premier maître d'hôtel de la philosophie. Almost everything he wrote -whether because it expounded atheism and materialism, attacked Christianity, or castigated absolute monarchy, the state church, and feudal privilege- was highly subversive under the Ancien régime and could have exposed him to the severest penalties. Consequently, his innumerable manuscripts were usually forwarded through secret channels to Holland for publication, after which the books were smuggled back into France.
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Phone number : 31 20 698 13 75
