Blackwell Reference Online

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Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, participated in the Enlightenment and thereby the intellectual stirrings that fueled the French Revolution of 1789 both as a patron and as a controversial writer. He wrote articles on chemistry and geology for the Encyclopédie , along with several influential philosophical works. He also provided a meeting place for the important thinkers and writers who passed through Paris in the mid-eighteenth century. After attending the University of Leyden and enjoying the relative freedom of thought in the Netherlands in the 1740s, Holbach returned to Paris, where he had been raised by his uncle. The beneficiary of large legacies left by his uncle and his father-in-law, Holbach had the resources to provide warm welcomes to friends at his home in Paris or his château in Grandval. He became renowned for his extravagant dinner parties and for facilitating discussions of controversial topics. His weekly salons and his patronage enabled men such as Denis Diderot and Claude-Adrien Helvétius to publish their works. Even those who did not share his atheism or agree with his trenchant critiques of the French monarchy enjoyed their visits to Holbach's salon. Even though Rousseau disagreed with many of his views, he used Holbach as a model character, an atheist with the morals of a Christian, in La Nouvelle Heloïse. Holbach published controversial books ... log in or subscribe to read full text