Intro to Humanism, Part 5: Enlightenment Precursors to Secular Humanism
title in France. D'Holbach's estate became a meeting place for the Philosophes (discussed next). D'Holbach was an atheist, determinist, and a materialist. He believed that the universe is operates according to mechanical laws of cause and effect, and is not designed by God. He did not believe in souls or free will. One of the most radical thinkers of his time, much of his work was published anonymously. His most famous is The System of Nature, in which he said, "The source of man's unhappiness is his ignorance of Nature".
D'Holbach was also a social reformer who opposed absolute monarchy, feudalism and state religions. He held that atheism is a prerequisite for any valid ethical theory. He argued that religion is based on dogma and ritual, but that ethics must be based on increasing human happiness and welfare and on human cooperation. In his book The System of Nature, he had this to say about ethics:
"...happiness, the true end of man's existence, can never be attained but by promoting that of his fellow creature." (author's preface)
"...virtue is every thing that is truly and constantly useful to the individuals of the human race living together in society; vice, every thing that is injurious to them...Morals, like the universe, are founded upon necessity, or upon the eternal relation of things." (chapter 5)
Thomas Jefferson also had much to say about the morals of the Encyclopedists, and atheists in general:
"If we did a good act merely from the love of God and a belief that it is pleasing to Him, whence arises the morality of the Atheist? It is idle to say, as some do, that no such thing exists. We have the same evidence of the fact as of most of those we act on, to wit: their own affirmations, and their reasonings in support of them. I have observed, indeed, generally, that while in Protestant countries the defections from the Platonic Christianity of the priests is to Deism, in Catholic countries they are to Atheism. Diderot, D'Alembert, D'Holbach, Condorcet, are known to have been among the most virtuous of men. Their virtue, then, must have had some other foundation than love of God."
Many of the Encyclopedists were also Philosophes, radical materialist philosophers with a skeptical attitude towards religion, and a strong belief in the perfectibility of humankind and social progress. Many of their ideas influenced the French Revolution, although the Philosophes would have strongly opposed the use of violence.
They sought to
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