Clinamen Press is issuing the following volumes in its ‘Enlightenment Source Texts’ Series:
SYSTEM OF NATURE - HOLBACH
Paul Henri Baron d’Holbach (1723 - 1789) One of the more radical of the philosophes, Holbach was strongly atheist and anti-establishment. All of his books were originally published anonymously for fear of retribution. He was an integral part of the circle of the philosophes, a close consort of Voltaire and Diderot and a patron to various radicals among the intellectual milieu. Diderot is credited as the editor of the System of Nature, and specialists still dispute the degree to which he collaborated in the writing of the work.The System of Nature was written to replace 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).

Published 9 November 1999
Volume two is planned for autumn 2000.

ISBN: 1903083028
Price: £16.99
Extent: 368 pages
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Series: Enlightenment Source Texts
THOUGHTS ON THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE - DIDEROT
Denis Diderot (1713 - 1784) Diderot was, alongside Voltaire, the most prolific, talented and famous of the Enlightenment figures known as the Philosophes. He orchestrated the contributions of the greatest intellectuals of the day to L’Encyclopedie; a monumental work of reference which aimed to catalogue all knowledge. A true man of letters he is also known for the novel (postmodern before its time) Jacques the Fatalist, numerous plays, and his biological and physical philosophies.
 
This anthology includes the first translation into English of Pensees sur l’Interpretation de la Nature, a work attacking the state of science in the mid-eighteenth century - for Diderot there was an inordinate emphasis on the sterile science of mathematics, brought about by the massive influence of Descartes. Diderot argued that mathematics is finally unable to say anything significant about the real world. He maintained that physical experiment is the only way to gain proper knowledge of causes, effects, and nature as a whole. In the course of this work he suggests a number of areas of enquiry in which physical experiment should be usefully be applied. One such is the nature of electricity - he conjectures that electricity is of the same source as magnetism (this was to be borne out by later science). This translation represents a landmark in Diderot studies, the Pensees is an indispensable work by the eighteenth century’s most influential thinker.
Included in this edition are two complementary philosophical works, The Letter on the Blind and d’Alemberts Dream, forming a trio which allows the reader a holistic appraisal of Diderot’s far reaching philosophy. It includes an introduction by Dr. David Adams, a reader in French at Manchester University. He is an acknowledged Diderot expert and has compiled the definitive bibliography of his works for the Voltaire Foundation. He is the author of Diderot, Dialogue and Debate, Cairns 1986.

Published: January 20, 2000
ISBN: 1903083052 (paperback)
1903083060 (cloth)
Price: £14.99 (paperback) , £35 (cloth)
Extent: 218 pages
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Series: Philosophy of Science
Translator: Lorna Sandler
Translation Editor: Dr. David Adams
ON THE NATURE AND CONDUCT OF THE PASSIONS
Francis Hutcheson (1694 - 1746) A seminal figure in the Scottish Enlightenment, Hutcheson was the first man to lecture in Scots rather than Latin. It was Hutcheson who coined the phrase "greatest good for the greatest number". His intellectual influence extend to such major figures as Kant, Hume and Adam Smith. His other principal works include An Inquiry into the Original of our Ideas of Beauty and Virtue (1725), and System of Moral Philosophy (1755).

On the Nature and Conduct of the Passions is a work dealing with the bases of morality and virtue, both public and private. Hutcheson argues that the natural inclination of the human being is to be virtuous, since the pleasures of being virtuous are the greatest we can experience. Individual human beings have a common inbuilt morality because of the human constitution. In addition to the five senses (sight, smell etc) he believed there was a "moral sense," both equal and complementary to these five. The picture he paints is of a human mentality positively geared to harmonious society, which stumbles and fails only when selfish interest gets in the way. Selfish interest though, was for him only a secondary phenomenon, a failure of the system, which can be corrected if only people could be brought to realize their own nature and the nature of their senses.
This edition has been fully modernized (antiquated graphemes replaced with standard modern characters). The book has a new introduction and notes by Andrew Ward. Mr. Ward is Senior Lecturer in Aesthetics, Ethics and Kant’s philosophy at the University of York. All Latin and Greek extracts have been glossed by Fiona Forsyth and her colleagues at Manchester Grammar School.

Published: October 8, 1999
ISBN: 1903083001
Price: £16.99
Extent: 256 pages
Size: 216 x 138 mm
Series: Enlightenment Source Texts


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