Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach is a German-born French philosopher, writer, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. One of the famous sayings - "To make others happy is the surest way to become happy in this world; to be virtuous means to take care of the happiness of your own kind."
Biography
Paul Henri was born on December 8, 1723 in Edesheim, near Landau in the Rhine Palatinate, in the family of Catherine Holbach and Johann Jacob Dietrich. Historians do not agree on Holbach's date of birth. The exact date of his birth is unknown, but recovered records state that he was baptized in December 1723. The mother was the daughter of a prince-bishop for the Roman Catholic diocese of Speyer, Johann Jacob Holbach. She passed away when her son was 7 years old. Father is a small merchant winemaker.
Paul was raised in Paris by his maternal uncle, Franz Adam Holbach, who was a very wealthy man who made his fortune trading on the Paris Stock Exchange. Franz also managed to serve in the French army from the end of the 17th century, and having distinguished himself in the wars of Louis XIV, he received the baronial title. It was from his uncle that the future great philosopher received a surname, a baronial title and a significant fortune, which later allowed him to devote his life to scientific activity.
Holbach the Younger studied at Leiden University from 1744 to 1748, receiving financial support from his uncle. Thanks to his perseverance and diligence, he quickly mastered French and English, studied Latin and Greek. He was fascinated by ancient authors, whose works he re-read from time to time. Holbach's uncle and father died in 1753, leaving him with a significant fortune and the "Heeze Castle".
Paul remained wealthy his entire life, managing his legacy wisely. On December 11, 1750, he married Basile-Geneve d'Ain, but family life did not last long: in 1754 his wife died of an illness unknown at that time. The distraught Holbach briefly moved to the province with his friend Baron Grimm, and the very next year he decided to marry the sister of his late wife Charlotte-Suzanne d'Aine. From the first marriage, a son was born, François Nicholas, and from the second, a son, Charles-Marius, and two daughters Amelie-Suzanne and Louise-Pauline.
Activities and views
After graduating from university, Paul Henri Holbach returned to Paris, where he was lucky to meet Denis Diderot, a French writer and philosopher-educator. This acquaintance, and later friendship, played a huge role in the life and work of both thinkers. At the time of his return to Paris, Holbach was already experienced in matters of philosophy. Diderot had a broad and comprehensive education, which allowed him to become the organizer and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedie, the largest reference publication that paved the way for the French Revolution. Paul has authored and translated numerous articles on a variety of topics, from politics and religion to chemistry and mineralogy. As a German who became a naturalized Frenchman, he translated many contemporary German works of natural philosophy into French. In total, the great philosopher contributed about four hundred articles to the project, mainly on scientific topics, and also was the editor of several volumes on natural philosophy.
In the family of François Adam de Holbach, religion was not held in high esteem, the spirit of free thought reigned everywhere. This influenced the bulk of the work that he subsequently released. His philosophy was clearly materialistic and atheistic. In 1761, the work "Christianisme devoile" appeared, which directly attacks Christianity and religion in general, as an obstacle to the development of mankind.
Most of Holbach's works were published anonymously or under assumed names, which was done in order to avoid persecution for bold statements and thoughts. His most famous work, "Le Systeme de la nature", was no exception. A philosophical work describing the universe in terms of the principles of materialism was released under the name of Jean-Baptiste de Mirabeau, a deceased member of the French Academy of Sciences. It was a work that presented a vast and completely naturalistic view of the world.
The philosopher did not disregard the issues of politics, morality, and also wrote a lot about his economic views. He strongly criticized the abuse of power in France and abroad. However, contrary to the revolutionary spirit of the time, he called on the educated classes to reform the corrupt system of government. His political and ethical views were influenced by the British materialist Thomas Hobbes. Holbach personally translated his work "De Homine" into French.
Paul Henri supported the theory of "laissez-faire" of the state and called on the government to prevent a dangerous concentration of wealth among a few people. He criticized the then French government's policy of allowing private individuals to collect taxes. He also believed that religious groups should be voluntary organizations without any government support.
Holbach's Salon
In 1780, Baron Holbach spent large sums of money to maintain one of the most prominent and lavish Parisian salons, which soon became an important meeting place for the Encyclopedie. There was also a special anti-religious library, which received both legal and illegal literature from different parts of the world. Participants met regularly twice a week, on Sundays and Thursdays. Visitors to the salon were exclusively men, high-ranking, free-thinking and discussing broader topics than in other salons of that time. Among the regular visitors to the salon were Diderot, Grimm, Condillac, Turgot, Morella, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Cesare Bakiria, Benjamin Franklin and many other famous people.
It is believed that Paul Henri Holbach died shortly before the French Revolution. He was buried on January 21, 1789 in an ossuary under the altar in the parish church of Saint-Roche in Paris. This ossuary was plundered twice, once during the French Revolution and then during the Paris Commune of 1871.
