15 D’Holbach’s Political and Social Thought: The Democratic “Revolution” in Western Values Prior to 1789
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Abstract
The baron d’Holbach’s political thought has been ignored by modern historians and political philosophers to a surprising extent, considering its considerable importance and centrality in his own work, and also is often misunderstood. The chapter attempts to show that his political ideas had much greater significance not just in the general framework of his own thought but also in the wider picture of 18th-century political discussion than is generally assumed, not least for his (masked) contribution to revolutionary era political theoretical debates. In fact, d’Holbach’s political thought has a central importance in the unfolding of the democratic republican tradition of the Radical Enlightenment, and hence also in the Enlightenment as a whole. While the main focus of the chapter is on the democratic and republican character of d’Holbach’s thought and how it relates to that of his contemporaries and particular context, attention is also paid to his views on gender issues, education and the question of wealth distribution.