Le Rayonnement de Bayle (review)

The collection of essays that constitute Le Rayonnement de Bayle were first presented during an international conference celebrating the three-hundredth anniversary of the death of the philosopher Pierre Bayle (1647-1706). The various contributions are all united by their emphasis on the importance of the life of Bayle, the biographical dimension, which is taken as key to understanding the writer's philosophy.

The volume opens with a section on "L'environnement historique et culturel," where the emphasis is on the importance of the social and political context that shaped Bayle's philosophy. Claudine Pailhès focuses on the philosopher's upbringing in le Carla en Foix, one that is marked by religious acceptance and a social and literary open-mindedness. That Bayle was "l'héritier" (24) of this open-minded environment is proven by events such as his re-conversion to Protestantism, seen as a sign of choice. Hans Bots draws attention to Bayle's ambiguous sentiments of exile in Holland. Philippe Joutard broaches the question of Bayle's international vision of politics, in light of events such as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes and England's Glorious Revolution, while emphasising the philosopher's position as more "victime" of the international situation than "acteur" (47). Here we see Bayle develop what Joutard calls a realist vision of politics, that those in power act only in the interest of maintaining their power and not according to their religious interests. Finally Myriam Yardeni puts forward the argument for Bayle's vision of a Protestant civilization in light of the increasingly corrupt court of Louis XIV.

In the following section on "La correspondance," the essays take into account the complexity of Bayle's literary and social networks. Anthony McKenna and Annie Leroux's work on an electronic edition of Bayle's correspondence highlights the density of the philosopher's networking, one that can be seen in constant evolution. Essays by Hubert Bost and Ruth Whelan focus in particular on the development and impact of Bayle's use of epistolary writing during his youth, the former centering on the relationship with his brothers, providing an early model, and the latter focusing on Bayle's developing ideas on friendship in line with his use of ancient and modern cultural models. Luc Daireaux brings attention to Bayle's short stay in Normandy, which should not be overlooked for its important role in enriching Bayle's networks. Closing this section is Edward James' focus on Bayle's correspondence with Jacques Du Rondel, illustrating the complex intertwining of friendship and intellectual scholarship.

The rest of the volume shifts to focus more narrowly on Bayle's philosophical positionings. The third part, "L'engagement pour la tolérance," centres on the Church and the relationship between religious majority and religious minorities. Ghislain Waterlot looks closely at the connection between Bayle's concept of tolerance and his arguments for the freedom of conscience. Pierre Joxe writes about Bayle's neutral understanding and use of Islam to support his philosophical arguments, paving the way for secularism. Patrick Cabanel focuses anew on the adversarial relationship of Bayle and Jurieu, calling for Jurieu's negative representation to be re-assessed. Moving back to look at Bayle from a modern day perspective, Jean Baubérot brings attention to Bayle's indirect contributions to Western secularism, in particular Bayle's concept of civil tolerance and call for the freedom of conscience.

Isabelle Delpla opens part four of the volume, "La réflexion philosophique," by looking at Bayle's understanding of the relationship between individuals in his vision of an ideal society of atheists. Central to his philosophy is Bayle's desire to abolish traditional idolatrous methods which, he argues, sacrifice the "individual" because they manipulate people's opinions of each other, for example, through religious superstitions that create a lack of trust between people. Instead, there must exist a direct relationship between individuals in society, a setup that would be morally and socially beneficial. Jean-Michel Gros revisits the...