Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet
Contributors: Robert C. Bartlett (Translator)
Publisher: State University of New York Press
Published: June 2000
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 332
ISBN-13: 9780791445488
Subjects: History of science; Philosophy of science; Religion and politics; History & Theory - General; Cosmology; Superstition; Body, Mind & Spirit; Philosophy; Literature: Classics; Parapsychology - General; Divination - General; History & Surveys - 17th/18th Century; Comets; Religious aspects; Miscellanea
Description: "The appearance of this comet caused so many panicked inquiries to be made of Pierre Bayle, one of the Enlightenment's greatest thinkers, that he decided to formally respond to them, hence the present work, which first appeared in 1682. The book's principle task was to undermine the influence of "superstition" in political life, and it was here that Bayle made the notorious suggestion, unique in the history of political thought until then, that a decent society of atheists is possible in principle.

There is no other English translation of this book in print - the only other version was printed in 1708. This translation is based on a recently revised critical edition of the complete French text and includes a substantial interpretive essay that both elucidates the arguments of the work and indicates the importance of Bayle in the history of the modern Enlightenment."--BOOK JACKET.