Early Deism in France: From the so-called 'déistes' of Lyon (1564) to Voltaire's 'Lettres philosophiques' (1734) (review)

296 JOURNAL OF THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY 25:9 APRIL 198 7 statements elsewhere that things are individuated in themselves, ~ and certainly requires more analysis than Goddu provides. It is not at all clear how indeterminately similar forms could individuate by determining quantity, particularly since Ockham has ejected quantity from the categories of being. The implications for Ockham's views about identity would be profound. In sum, Goddu's work provides a survey of Ockham's natural philosophy while attempting to decide the question of whether Ockham made a positive contribution to scientific progress. Although the text suffers some lapses of precision, and the number of circles Goddu attributes to Ockham finally become suspiciously dizzying, the book is a window on Ockham's world. HESTER GOODENOUGH GELBER Stanford University C. J. Betts. Early Deism in France: From the so-called 'd~istes'of Lyon (1564) to Voltaire's 'Lettres philosophiques' (z734). International Archives of the History of Ideas, vol. lo 4. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1984. Pp. xiii + 3o9. $53.5o. It is important to read the title carefully, for Betts follows general scholarly opinion today in rejecting Busson's claim that deism had a continuous history from the sixteenth century. The period 1564-167o Betts labels as the prehistory of deism; he views Viret's account as an observation of anti-trinitarianism in Lyon, interprets the 'po~me des d6istes' as a libertine work of the 162os mislabeled "d6iste" by Mersenne, and claims a complete absence of deistic ideas from a63o-167o. A conspicuous methodological problem is the definition of "deism." Amid the multiple definitions and redefinitions of the early modern period, Betts limits "deism" proper to a belief in God (theism) combined with a rejection of Christian belief. Betts' rejection of Virets, Mersenne's, and Bayle's claims to find deists in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries is a consequence of his adhering to the definition of "deism" in L'Encyclop~die, as well as to his confirmation of Lucien Febvre's perspective that there is little direct evidence of deists except through critics and Christian apologists. Given Betts' willingness to dispute the labels of contemporaries , it is surprising that he is so brief in treating neo-Stoic religious perspectives (which resembled Enlightenment ones) in figures such as Herbert of Cherbury, who were not labeled "deist" in their time. Betts gives the label "precursors of deism" to Saint-Evremond, Foigny, Veiras, and Marana, authors in the last three decades of the seventeenth century. "Early deism" he dates as 17oo-1715 , the period of Gilbert, Lahontan, Geuedeville, the Militaire philosophe, the Examen de la religion, and Tyssot de Patot. Betts assumes the reader's familiarity with Spinoza, Simon, and Malebranche , whose importance he stresses in the development of the early deists' rationalist critique of Biblical revelation. The book culminates with an analysis of MontesSee Ockham, Sent. 1.~.6, in OT ~: 196-97, l~. 1-a8, for example. BOOK REVIEWS 297 quieu's Lettres persanes--a book which appears mild in this context compared to the radical critique of Marana--and of Voltaire's Lettres philosophiques, in which literary techniques such as irony, wit, and humor replace the direct critique of the early deist manuscripts. Against the backdrop of the early deists, Montesquieu's and Voltaire's originality is in their evaluation of religion by social utility and in their literary effectiveness. The impact of Betts' book I expect will be to draw more scholars into a fresh reading of the biting clandestine treatises of the so-called "precursors" and "early deists," which I might add are also of interest in putting Hume in historical perspective. Early Deism in France is very useful to students and scholars in its vivid paraphrasing of the viewpoints of the imaginary deists whose rejection of Christianity is portrayed through dialogues with Christians. A major oversight, however, is Betts' omission of any mention of More's Utopia (1516) which established the genre of a faraway land inhabited by believers in a simple natural religion (rather than Foigny as Betts asserts). Fictional deists discussed include Senamus and Toralba in Bodin's Colloquium Heptaplomeres, Suains in Foigny's La terre australe connue, the S~varambe...