New from Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment:
Determinism and Enlightenment: The Collaboration of Diderot and d’Holbach
By Ruggero Sciuto
This book reassesses Diderot’s and d’Holbach’s theory of determinism. It examines the way in which both thinkers engaged with the Christian philosophical tradition and problematises our understanding of the “Radical Enlightenment”. It offers a re-interpretation of Diderot’s and d’Holbach’s place in the history of philosophy, provides a fresh interpretation of crucial eighteenth-century texts such as the Système de la nature and Jacques le fataliste et son maître, and unveils a key web of concepts that will help researchers to better understand Enlightenment philosophy and literature as a whole.
Offers a fresh interpretation of Jacques le fataliste et son maître as a light-hearted synthesis of Diderot’s views on the surprising resemblances between determinism, fatalism, and chance.
Paints a more detailed and balanced picture of d’Holbach’s philosophy, revealing its inner complexity and restoring the Baron to his rightful position in the history of European thought.
Looking at eighteenth-century French views on causation, determinism, and the laws of nature, it fills a considerable gap in philosophical scholarship and problematises our modern understanding of these notions.
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Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
List of figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter I: Three Fundamental Principles
Chapter II: Causal Necessitation
Chapter III: Laws of Nature
Chapter IV: Moral Freedom
Chapter V: Individuals and Society
Chapter VI: Paradoxes of Determinism
Conclusion
Bibliography
Pre-1850 sources
Post-1850 sources
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Ruggero Sciuto is a Leverhulme Early Career Researcher at St Edmund Hall, Oxford, where his research focuses on eighteenth-century French literature and philosophy as well as on early modern diplomacy. He is the director of Digital d’Holbach, a born-digital critical edition of d’Holbach’s works, and a collaborator on the Oxford edition of Voltaire’s Complete Works.
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The Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series, previously known as SVEC (Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century), has published over 500 peer-reviewed scholarly volumes since 1955 as part of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford. International in focus, Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment volumes cover wide-ranging aspects of the eighteenth century and the Enlightenment, from gender studies to political theory, and from economics to visual arts and music, and are published in English or French.