How Many Atheists at DâHolbachâs Table?

Emilio Mazza; Gianluca Mori

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10 How Many Atheists at DâHolbachâs Table?

In: The Great Protector of Wits

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Emilio Mazza

Emilio Mazza
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Gianluca Mori

Gianluca Mori
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 173â201

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004516847_012

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Abstract

On the 23rd of August 1763 dâHolbach has read â this is what he tells him â Humeâs âvaluable worksâ and declares the âstrongest admirationâ for his genius and the âstrongest desireâ of getting acquainted with âone of the greatest philosophers of any ageâ. On the 17th of October Hume arrived in Paris; after a few days he met dâHolbach, and Diderot reports their conversation: he âthought to say to the Baron that he did not believe in atheists, that he never saw any. The Baron said to him: âCount exactly how many we are here.â â We were eighteen. â The Baron added: âIt is not unhappy that we can count fifteen of them at the first stroke [â¦]ââ. The anecdote, first published in 1830, soon became a common place among those scholars who wished to be confirmed that, unlike dâHolbach, Hume was not an atheist and never called himself such. An anecdote is never a good foundation for an argument; yet it can tell us many other things. What happened exactly at dâHolbachâs table, that âcommon receptacle for all men of letters and ingenuityâ?

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The Great Protector of Wits

Baron d'Holbach and His Time

Series:Â Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume: 339

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004516847

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 26 May 2022

Subjects

Front Matter

Part 1 Holbach: Philosopher and Philosophe

Part 2 Holbach: Strategist of the Enlightenment

Part 4 Holbach and His Time

Part 5 Holbach and Revolutionary Consciousnesses

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10 How Many Atheists at DâHolbachâs Table?

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The Great Protector of Wits

Baron d'Holbach and His Time

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10 How Many Atheists at DâHolbachâs Table?