Positive Atheism
Author | : Charles Devellennes |
Publisher | : EUP |
Total Pages | : 240 |
Release | : 2022-11-30 |
ISBN-10 | : 1474478441 |
ISBN-13 | : 9781474478441 |
Rating | : 4/5 (441 Downloads) |
Download or read book Positive Atheism written by Charles Devellennes and published by EUP. This book was released on 2022-11-30 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Charles Devellennes looks at the the religious, social and political thought of the first four thinkers of the French Enlightenment: Pierre Bayle, Jean Meslier, Paul-Henri Thiry d'Holbach and Denis Diderot to explicitly argue for atheism as a positive philosophy. He shows how atheism evolved considerably over the century that spans the works of these four authors: from the possibility of the virtuous atheist in the late 17th century, to a deeply rooted materialist philosophy with radical social and political consequences by the eve of the French revolution. The metamorphosis of atheism from a purely negative phenomenon to one that became self-aware had profound consequences for establishing an ethics without God and the rise of republicanism as a political philosophy.