This man was nothing less than a founder of modern society: Pierre Bayle

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Pierre Bayle (1647-1706) believed nobody should punish heretics or try to compel them to act against their honest beliefs. Stefano Bianchetti

Sep 8 2016 at 12:21 PM
by Anthony Gottlieb

Pierre Bayle, a French thinker who died in Rotterdam in 1706, is the ­forgotten hero of the Enlightenment. His name sometimes rings a bell for historians of philosophy, but apart from them I cannot remember when I last met anyone who had heard of him.

In the 18th century, however, Bayle's admirers included Frederick the Great, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and Voltaire. They revered him for his defence of religious liberty and his genius for undermining conventional ideas. Voltaire said that the "immortal" Bayle was the greatest reasoner who ever set pen to paper.

Immortality, it seems, does not always last. One reason for Bayle's eclipse is that his ideas no longer seem novel or shocking; moreover, his writings digress uncontrollably. This is not a winning combination.

His Historical and Critical Dictionary – once among the commonest books in northern European homes – is a jumble of more than six million words, most of which come in rambling footnotes. Published between 1697 and 1702, it was a unique source of ­information and argument at that time. Now we have Wikipedia.

http://www.afr.com/lifestyle/arts-and-entertainment/books/this-man-was-nothing-less-than-a-founder-of-modern-society-pierre-bayle-20160905-gr8zhe#ixzz4Jf0v29zR

http://philosophicalservices.com/Vol1Search.pdf