In the wake of the Scientific Revolution, the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the complete demolition of traditional structures of authority, scientific thought, and belief by the new philosophy and the philosophers, including Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau. The RadicalEnlightenment played a part in this revolutionary process, which effectively overthrew all justification for monarchy, aristocracy, and ecclesiastical power, as well as man's dominance over woman, theological dominance of education, and slavery. Despite the present day interest in the revolutions ofthe eighteenth century, the origins and rise of the Radical Enlightenment have received limited scholarly attention. The greatest obstacle to the movement finding its proper place in modern historical writing is its international scope: the Racial Enlightenment was not French, British, German, Italian, Jewish or Dutch, but all of these at the same time. In this wide-ranging volume, Jonathan Israel offers a novel interpretation of the Radical Enlightenment down to La Mettie and Diderot, two of its key exponents. Particular emphasis is placed on the pivotal role of Spinoza and the widespread underground international philosophical movement knownbefore 1750 as Spinozism. The Radical Enlightenment was a set of ideas which helped lay the foundations of the modern world on the basis of equality, democracy, secularism, and universality. This study by cultural historian, Jonathan Israel, shows how Spinoza and his thought set the intellectual current towards the political revolutions of the later 18th century. Preface v Acknowledgements viii List of Plates xv List of Figures xvii List of Map and Tables xvii Abbreviations of Library and Archive Locations xviii Other Abbreviations xix Part I: The `Radical Enlightenment' 1(156) Introduction 3(20) Radical Thought in the Early Enlightenment 3(11) The `Crisis of the European Mind' 14(9) Government and Philosophy 23(36) The Advent of Cartesianism 23(6) Cartesianism in Central Europe 29(6) The New Philosophy conquers Scandinavia and the Baltic 35(3) France: Philosophy and Royal Absolutism 38(5) Reaction in the Italian States 43(16) Society, Institutions, Revolution 59(23) Philosophy and the Social Hierarchy 59(8) Shaftesbury, Radicati, Vauvenargues 67(4) The Revolutionary Impulse 71(11) Women, Philosophy, and Sexuality 82(15) The Emancipation of Women 82(9) Conversational Freedom; Sexual Freedom 91(6) Censorship and Culture 97(22) French Royal Censorship 97(7) Philosophy and Censorship in Central Europe 104(5) Philosophy and Censorship in Southern Europe 109(7) Freedom of Though, Expression, and of the Press 116(3) Libraries and Enlightenment 119(23) The Universal Library 119(8) The Crisis of the Universities 127(4) Shelving the Two Enlightenments 131(3) Lexicons and Dictionnaires 134(3) The Early Enlightenment in National Context 137(5) The Learned Journals 142(15) Changing Europe's Intellectual Culture 142(10) The Journals and the Radical Enlightenment 152(5) Part II: The Rise of Philosophical Radicalism 157(172) Spinoza 159(16) Van den Enden: Philosophy, Democracy, and Egalitarianism 175(10) Democratic Republicanism 175(5) Revolutionary Conspiracy 180(5) Radicalism and the People: The Brothers Koerbagh 185(12) The Theologian-Philosopher, Johannes Koerbagh (1634-1672) 185(5) The Bloemhof 190(2) The Trial of the Brothers Koerbagh 192(5) Philosophy, the Interpreter of Scripture 197(21) Lodewijk Meyer (1629-1681) 197(3) The Philosophia 200(5) The Wolzogen Disputes 205(3) The `New Religion' of Philosophy 208(4) The Philosophia in England 212(2) German and Scandinavian Reverberations 214(4) Miracles Denied 218(12) Spinoza's System 230(12) Spinoza, Science, and the Scientists 242(16) Radical Thought and the Scientific Revolution 242(4) Spinoza and Huygens 246(6) Spinoza versus Boyle 252(6) Philosophy, Politics, and the Liberation of Man 258(17) In Search of `Freedom' 258(4) Monarchy Overturned 262(3) Spinoza, Locke, and the Enlightenment Struggle for Toleration 265(5) Equality and the Quest for `Natural Man' 270(5) Publishing a Banned Philosophy 275(20) The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 275(10) The Battle of the Ethics 285(10) The Spread of a Forbidden Movement 295(34) The Death of a Philosopher 295(7) Lucas, Saint-Glain, and The Hague Coterie 302(5) The Rise of Dutch Spinozism 307(8) Philopater 315(5) Dutch Radicalism at the Beginning of the Eighteenth Century 320(9) Part III: Europe and The `New' Intellectual Controversies (1680-1720) 329(116) Bayle and the `Virtuous Atheist' 331(11) The Bredenburg Disputes 342(17) Fontenelle and the War of the Oracles 359(16) The Death of the Devil 375(31) From Van Dale to Bekker 375(7) The Public Furore 382(6) Churches Divided 388(4) The European Diffusion 392(14) Leenhof and the `Universal Philosophical Religion' 406(30) Frederik van Leenhof (1647-1713) 406(4) Heaven on Earth 410(12) The Politics of Philosophy 422(9) The Leenhof Controversy in the Netherlands, Germany, and the Baltic 431(5) The `Nature of God' Controversy (1710-1720) 436(9) Part IV: The Intellectual Counter-Offensive 445(118) New Theological Strategies 447(30) Theology and the Revolution in Bible Criticism 447(9) Physico-Theology 456(8) Le Clerc, Limborch, and Locke 464(7) From the `Rationalization' to the `Irrationalization' of Religion 471(6) The Collapse of Cartesianism 477(25) Empiricism 477(8) Deadlock in France 485(6) Regis and the Failure of French Cartesianism 491(11) Leibniz and the Radical Enlightenment 502(13) Early Encounters 502(5) Leibniz, Steno, and the Radical Challenge (1676-1680) 507(4) Leibniz and the `War of Philosophies' 511(4) Anglomania: The `Triumph' of Newton and Locke 515(13) Europe Embraces English Ideas 515(7) Locke, Newtonianism, and Enlightenment 522(6) The Intellectual Drama in Spain and Portugal 528(13) Germany and the Baltic: the `War of the Philosophers' 541(22) Deepening Philosophical Crisis 541(3) The Wolffian Controversies (1723-1740) 544(8) Wolff and the Rise of German Deism 552(6) Wolffianism versus Newtonianism in the Baltic 558(5) Part V: The Clandestine Progress of The Radical Enlightenment (1680-1750) 563(158) Boulainvilliers and the Rise of French Deism 565(10) French Refugee Deists in Exile 575(16) The Flight to Holland 575(4) Gueudeville and Lahontan 579(3) Antagonist of Voltaire: Saint-Hyacinthe (1684-1746) 582(4) The Marquis d'Argens (1703-1771) 586(5) The Spinozistic Novel in French 591(8) English Deism and Europe 599(29) The Deist Challenge 599(10) John Toland (1670-1722) 609(5) Anthony Collins (1676-1729) 614(5) Matthew Tindal (c.1657-1733) 619(4) Bernard Mandeville (1670-1733) 623(5) Germany: The Radical Aufklarung 628(36) Initial Reaction 628(9) Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708) 637(4) Friedrich Wilhelm Stosch (1648-1704) 641(4) Spinoza and Cabbala: Wachter and Spaeth 645(7) Theodor Ludwig Lau (1670-1740) 652(3) Schmidt and the Maturing of German Spinozism 655(4) Johann Christian Edelmann (1698-1767) 659(5) The Radical Impact in Italy 664(20) Giambattista Vico (1668-1744) 664(6) Paolo Mattia Doria (1662-1746) 670(4) Pietro Giannone (1676-1748) 674(3) Radical Thought in Venice 677(7) The Clandestine Philosophical Manuscripts 684(20) Categories 684(10) L'Esprit de Spinosa 694(7) Despotism, Islam, and the Politicization of Superstition 701(3) From La Mettrie to Diderot 704(10) Materialism 704(5) Diderot 709(5) Epilogue: Rousseau, Radicalism, Revolution 714(7) Bibliography 721(58) Index 779