Ongelooflijk. De kant van de Verlichting die in de klassieke geschiedenislessen verwaarloosd wordt, beschreven door een Philipp Blom in grote vorm.
Het boek leest als een trein en als lezer voel je je bijna even thuis in de Parijse salons van Baron Thiry D'Holbach als hoofdrolspelers Diderot, D'Alembert, Hume en aanverwanten. Het conflict met Rousseau voel je zo onder de huid kruipen en het idealisme, de gedrevenheid en de intellectuele moed van de protagonisten is hartverwarmend. Topboek. Absoluut. ( )

Bespreking:
De vriendschap en vooral samenhorigheid van Diderot en Holbach, leiden tot een praatsalon in Parijs, waar de knapste geesten van de tijd vrij kunnen debatteren en ideeën uitwisselen. De grondtoon is het geloof in de wetenschap en de afschuw voor het bij / geloof.

+ Punten
- Prachtig, schets niet alleen een filosofische denkschool, doch geeft ook een prachtig beeld van de ontstaansgeschiedenis, de historische omstandigheden, zonder oog te verliezen voor de klein menselijke aspecten.
- Fenomenaal hoe de schrijver tal van andere filosofen kan plaatsen (Cicero, Lucretius, Helvetius, La Mettrie, Spinoza, Kant …).
- Overtuigend in zijn kritische bemerkingen, bijvoorbeeld zeer hard voor Rousseau. Wordt omscherven als paranoïde, ondankbaar en laf. Onderstreept het belang van opvoeding, doch laat zijn bastaard kinderen als vondeling achter ….
- Punten

Besluit: Prachtig. Geeft inzicht in niet alleen de filosofie van de verlichting doch ook in de mensen die erachter stonden. ( )

http://bookscorpionslair.blogspot.de/2013/09/a-wicked-company.html ( )

Saló parision del barón Paul Thry d´Holbach epicentrodel debate, de la audacia intelectual y las ideas revolucionarias: Diderot, David Hume, Adam Smith, Rousseau....: Ilustración 1750/1770 ( )

This is an interesting book that provides some little-known connections between the larger-known set of ideas that we largely recognize as the "Enlightenment," and is especially aimed at the general reader. Those whose knowledge of the intellectual side of the Enlightenment is moderate to extensive will gain little from the book, but it was still interesting to learn about some of the private lives, loves, and feuds of the people involved therein.

Blom's ultimate emphasis here is on the so-called "radical" Enlightenment, as opposed to the moderate Enlightenment of thinkers like Voltaire. The latter still flirted with the political status quo and entertained deism. After all, Voltaire made his fortune by loaning vast sums of money to European monarchs; it's difficult to rock the boat of ideas when your financial security depends on it. Those of the radical Enlightenment were not afraid to take reason, science, and materialism to its ultimate limits: there are many of them, but the major figures include Baron Holbach, Diderot, d'Alembert, Buffon, Grimm, and Hume. One figure he decidedly excludes from his radical favorites is Jean-Jacques Rousseau, choosing to portray him, rightly or wrongly, as a paranoid megalomanic.

After giving some initial biographical information of the characters that loom the largest in the book - Diderot, Holbach, and Rousseau - we proceed to learn more about their thought and their circle of what are usually considered more minor friends. Blom intermittently keeps referring back to Holbach's twice-weekly dinners that would often be attended some of the greatest minds in Europe. At the table at Grandval, chez Holbach, they would sit down to delectable poulets a la Reine, cold pate, and raspberry gelee (they actually give a menu from one of the gatherings in the book) and talk about the philosophy, religion (largely their intense dislike thereof), and groundbreaking science. I thought the conceit of a big dinner party was an interesting one to tell what amounts to a group biography, and certainly helped keep things both entertaining and engaging.

Not only are the lives and ideas of the current characters discussed in context, but Blom also takes the time to discuss those people that influenced their thought, some of which I only now realized I had not fully fleshed out before. He has a very interesting chapter on Spinozist monism versus Cartesian dualism, and how that argument reverberated through the eighteenth century; later in the book, he discusses how through their thorough familiarity with the classics, Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" and the Greek atomists Democritus and Leucippus might have been influential in a revival of materialism, too. For the first two-thirds of the book, Blom lets his sizeable bias against Rousseau get in the way of an otherwise much more objective piece of intellectual history. Because of the general nature of the book and the heavy bias toward Rousseau, I can't in all fairness give this book more than 3 stars. For a more sophisticated and nuanced treatment of the Enlightenment, I suggest Peter Gay's two-volume treatment, "The Rise of Modern Paganism" and "The Science of Freedom." The first two volumes of Jonathan Israel's trilogy, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity, 1650-1750 and Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752 are equally wonderful. ( )