"The source of Man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature."D'Holbach believed that the misery he saw in mankind around him was caused by religion and its superstitious beliefs - that there was a God who controlled destiny and would reward or punish individuals. The System of Nature was written to replace these delusions with a schema of understanding based solely on the physical workings of nature. "Let Man study this nature, let him learn her laws, contemplate her energies." For d'Holbach the soul is only the physical body, understood from a certain point of view, which dies when the body dies. All the events and the nature of the world can be understood in terms of the motion and properties of matter; even the tiniest causes contribute to huge events - a simple change in the diet of an Emperor (or some other such insignificant cause), he suggests might have been capable of "saving kingdoms." For him, nature's laws are fixed and necessary, and if Man wants to find happiness it is best to accept this - if governments want to rule wisely they should base themselves on this principle. Man's fear of death and desire for immortality should be resisted and those in power should not be allowed to play upon these passions.Clinamen Press has issued the book with a fully modernized text and a newly commissioned introduction by Michael Bush. Recently retired from Manchester University, where he was a reader in History, his previous works include the very successful What is Love? Richard Carlile's Philosophy of Sex for Verso (1998) and Pilgrimage of Grace: a Study of the Rebel Armies of October 1536 (1996). He is a keen collector of rare books, specializing in radical authors.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Language Notes
Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French
Original Language: French
From the Back Cover
The System of Nature, known as the Atheists' Bible, is the most radical expression of atheist materialism to come from the eighteenth century milieu of the philosophes in Paris. D'Holbach (1723-1789) was a central figure of the French intellectual enlightenment, contributing prolifically to Diderot's Encyclopedie, and undertaking numerous translations of British free thought. His intention in this work was to extend the stand of his contemporaries against religion and the church into a fully-fledged system which would replace religion as a foundation for belief. In so doing he both outstripped the polemic of his earlier work, and adopted a position which was considered radical even among the illustrious and subversive circle of the philosophes. Volume One represents the programmatic elaboration of d'Holbach's belief in the necessaary and immutable laws of nature as the only possible explanation for physical events.
Denis Diderot's contribution to The System of Nature is decisive and well-established, lending an authority and style to the work that is evident throughout. This edition is fully modernised, with all foreign language quotations newly translated and an introduction by Michael Bush.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clear, rational and dissecting human fantasies on existance.,
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This review is from: System of Nature (Paperback)
Baron d'Holbach shows us how remarkably far Enlightenment philosophy had reached in finding reasonable theories for the cause and the nature of existance. His rationalism demonstrates that the existance of a god is not necessary for the world's existance. It would be a clear example of circular reasoning is someone were to assert a god is indeed necessary for the existance of all things; a god would also need a first cause of existance. Exposing this flaw of reasoning (still in practice amongst relgious groups!) d'Holbach shows in his The System of Nature that existance, and thus the universe, is a combination of causes and consequences, of mechanics. D'Holbach's phenomenal knowledge of nature and his analytical way of reasoning do not only demonstrate that Enlightenment thinking had reached very far; it also shows that these brave philosophers (the men who gathered at D'Holbach's salon) already declared atheism to be true, when no one knew something about the evolution theory, which was to finally expel religion from science's turf. The western world ows a lot to D'Holbach; a man who could not publish his work under his own name, as the king of France would have him executed on charges of blasphemy. Adducing the non-existance of a Creator by means of scientific evidence can hardly be called blasphemy; how could you blaspheme about something that does not exist? Fortunately, also, D'Holbach's freethinking, along with that of American and British rationalists, opened the way to freedom of speech and inquiry that we currently enjoy in modern states. mrbas_26@hotmail.com
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Enlightenment indeed,
This review is from: System of Nature (Paperback)
What impresses me the most is how firm, consistent, and bold d'Holbach was in holding certain opinions which at the time were shocking to (most of the) learned and unintelligible to (almost all the) unlearned. This guy was not just smart - he had guts, knew he was right, stuck to his guns, and never wavered.
D'Holbach did not write for fame (he wrote anonymously, for his neck's sake) or for money (he was very rich by inheritance), but for truth. D'Holbach would have been pleased to know that Einstein was also a strict determinist like him, that Francis Crick was also a materialist like him (believing matter is all there is and rejecting "the soul", "mind-brain dualism" and similar nonsense), and that atheism is no longer a radical thing (to put it mildly), especially among the educated. Most natural scientists are now atheists. D'Holbach's utilitarianism would find wide appeal in this democratic age. If alive today, d'Holbach would be in good company among some of the greatest minds of the world. But even in this day and age, there are scientists, of all people, who believe otherwise! (E.g., Freeman Dyson, who belives in free will, John Eccles, who believed in mind-body dualism, and John Polkinghorne, the mathematical physicist who is also a priest in the Church of England.) And so d'Holbach's book is still a pleasure to read - and much needed. But if the objective reality of nature revealed by science hasn't convinced you by now of d'Holbach's point of view, this book isn't going to convince you either. Those who come to read it are (like me) probably already converted by other means. Incidentally, I'd add that d'Holbach showed pretty sound judgments about other matters. He speculated that the human species might have arrived by evolutionary stages, long before Charles Darwin proved this to be the case. (And it would be a few years after d'Holbach's death in 1789 that Erasmus Darwin first hinted at evolution.) Also, when discussing how small events can give rise to very big events d'Holbach made an incredibly prescient guess about Napoleon's birth. D'Holbach also showed he understood men when he warned the normally clever Hume (who was 12 years his senior) about Rousseau's character. Baron d'Holbach was wisdom personified.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Classic,
This review is from: System of Nature (Paperback)
French philosopher Paul d'Holbach (1723-1789) was remarkable in that he eloquently and systematically attacked religion with an intellectual vehemence not seen before or during his time. Unlike earlier scholars such as Machiavelli or Hobbes, where their anti-religious prose was quite subtle (and it is still debated whether either man was an atheist), d'Holbach was very clear about his disdain for the church and its effect upon mankind.
The Christian church was powerful and barbaric during the Eighteenth century, and criticism was not taken lightly. Paul d'Holbach wrote under pseudonyms to protect his identity, for as he observed: "It is thus, that for opinions which no man can demonstrate, we see the Brahmin despised; the Mohammedan hated; the Pagan held in contempt; and that they oppress and disdain each other with the most rancorous animosity: the Christian burns the Jew because he clings to the faith of his fathers; the Roman Catholic condemns the Protestant to the flames, and makes a conscience of massacring him in cold blood; this reacts in his turn; again the various sects of Christians have leagued together against the incredulous, and for a moment suspended their own bloody disputes, that they might chastise their enemies: then, having glutted their revenge, they returned with redoubled fury to wreak over again their infuriated vengeance on each other." In some ways, d'Holbach's ardent belief that religion caused immeasurable harm to humanity overshadowed his other ideas. He was an evolutionist, and suggested that the largest of animals may have originally evolved from microscopic life-forms. He was a determinist, during an age when "God" was treated as the only ultimate cause. His observations on the behaviour of other creatures led him to imbue nature with the intent and mastery normally reserved for mystical deities; unfortunately, he was also an Empiricist, and so was unable to adopt a pantheistic perspective, and hence his arguments regarding nature were frequently contradictory or circular. Paul d'Holbach's treatment of religion in his "System of Nature" is a classic in atheistic literature. Drawing upon his exceptional knowledge of early and ancient texts, and noteworthy understanding of the nuances of the Christian faith, he was able to demonstrate through logic and ethics that the traditional perception of God is completely unworkable. To this day, his arguments cannot be repudiated.
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