Talk:Baron d'Holbach

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Who is the real author of Mon Testament--Baron d'Holbach or Jean Meslier?

Meslier. D'Holbach was 6 years old when Testament was published. --Dannyno 11:58, 16 June 2006 (UTC)[reply]

What nonsense!

"His book Le Système de la nature became known as the Atheist's Bible."

What nonsense!

I am an atheist and I don't consider Le Système de la nature as the Bible. By the way, how do you pronounce "Le Système de la nature "?

RS

Your being an atheist and your lack of knowledge regarding d'Holbach has nothing to do with how his work was regarded in the past. d'Holbach's work did have a large and today mostly unappreciated affect and his treatise on the system of nature did at one point have quite a reputation. -dp

The criticism is misplaced. The book was indeed called "the atheist's Bible". See, for example, p.87 of "The Enlightenment: a sourcebook and reader", (2003) edited by Paul Hyland, Francesca Greensides, and Olga Gomez. Or p.112 of Maurice Braure's "The Age of Absolutism" (1963). That is was so called clearly does not mean that atheists regarded it in the same way that Christians view the Bible. It just means that it was very significant in its time. Don't take it so literally and ahistorically. In fact, there is no indication in the two sources above that any atheist called it "the atheist's Bible". Maybe they did, maybe they didn't. Just as likely, Christians thought of it that way. --Dannyno 18:05, 23 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I always thought it was called the Materialist bible? /Benzocaine 19:52, 24 July 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Authorship of works

If d'Holbach wrote works under different names, how did it come to light that he was indeed the author? I reckon the answer would be an interesting addition to the article. Did he claim ownership in a private letter or diary? Pnelnik (talk) 17:51, 18 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

D'Holbach's inner circle of friends like Naigeon and Baron von Grimm were aware that he'd written these books, and after the death of D'Holbach's and his wife it was safe to let the secret gradually leak out. See W.H. Wickwar's biography of D'Holbach and David Holohan's recent edition of Christianity Unveiled.118.90.40.151 (talk) 05:12, 29 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Baron?

Is he a baron, or is it just a title? I am asking because the answer should probably be including in the article. Thanks, Steve T. R. --SomeDudeWithAUserName (talk with me!) 22:12, 2 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The question makes little sense as posed. What is the difference between "being a baron" and "having baron as a title"?!. Holbach inherited the title from his uncle. We could include that fact, duly sourced, in the article --Dannyno (talk) 07:30, 8 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The question makes sense if it would be like this: was Holbach a real baron? Because in France you would be called a baron if you were rich and had real estate in Germany. Has Holbach really inherited the title from his uncle? Do you have a good source for this, Dannyno? Than it should be included in the article. For some readers this is an important question (not for me). There was an inflation of titles at that time in France. --13Peewit (talk) 07:53, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Noble titles was conferred by the king, so all official noble titles was real, whether he got it from heritage or from property. The only example where it would not have been a real title would be if he went around claiming to be a baron without actually having been bestowed the title, and that is certainly not the case here. --Saddhiyama (talk) 09:16, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Secondary literature

I see one title twice, under "secondary literature" and under "references": Blom, Böse Philosophen. Why did you do this? --13Peewit (talk) 07:46, 13 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Influenced by

So I understand that d'Holbach is often said and believed to be the first (somewhat) open atheist in Europe so there were not many before him that could have influenced him. Thomas Hobbes definitely had influence. I believe that after reading all of d'Holbach's works and reading The Leviathan by Hobbes. But could it be argued that Lord Bolingbroke had influence over d'Holbach as well? Bolingbroke also questioned religion, though he wasn't an atheist, but was a deist or theist. I ask this because of d'Holbach's ending line in 'Good Sense' is a quote by Bolingbroke about theology that he agrees with.

Does anyone know anything more about this? I have not read any of Bolingbroke's writings so I can't be for sure and don't want to put anything in the article without more evidence than d'Holbach's single quote. --Brainboy109 17:12, 25 August 2012

In his trilogy on Radical Enlightenment Jonathan I. Israel poses the theory that Spinoza was a major influence on not only d'Holbach but also in Diderot, de la Mettrie and the other French radical thinkers of that period. He also meticuously investigates other examples of atheism in Europe from the 17th century to the French Revolution. --Saddhiyama (talk) 11:06, 26 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

d'Holbach or D'Holbach

Otis Fellows and P.N. Furbank spell his name as d'Holbach in their biographies of Diderot. So does Will Durant in his books 'The Age of Voltaire' and 'Rousseau and Revolution'. However, Arthur Wilson in his biography of Diderot spells the name as D'Holbach. So both spellings of his name are apparently OK; although,in my opinion, we should decide on any one spelling of the name and stick with it consistently throughout the WP article. Soham321 (talk) 18:31, 21 September 2015 (UTC)[reply]

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