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Full Description
This volume contains the key philosophical writings of maverick Enlightenment philosopher André-Pierre Le Guay de Prémontval (1716-1764). Prémontval was a prolific member of the Berlin Academy of Sciences, and in his career as academic he wrote a series of essays and books on a range of core philosophical topics, such as necessity and contingency, free will, sufficient reason, personal identity, the nature of the mind and its relationship with the body, optimism, and the existence of God. Prémontval's philosophy, shaped by his opposition to key philosophers such as Descartes, Leibniz, and Wolff, is notable for a number of original and often provocative positions on key philosophical issues of the time, which he supported by inventive critiques and a raft of novel arguments. In addition to developing a highly original proof for the existence of God based on the principles of atheism, Prémontval argued that all possible beings exist, and do so necessarily and therefore eternally; he insisted that the universe unfolded through an interplay of chance and necessity, its direction influenced by God but not under God's direct control; and he considered free will a curse and the main impediment to the realization of the only aim fitting for God, which was to make all beings happy and holy as quickly as possible. His writings are notable for anticipating modern developments such as open theism, process theology, and animal theodicy. In this volume, Lloyd Strickland makes Prémontval's key philosophical writings available in English for the first time. In making these translations, Strickland—a well-respected translator of Leibniz's work—has consulted the original manuscripts to ensure the greatest accuracy, and as befits a scholarly edition, the texts are meticulously documented with copious annotations. Accompanying the texts is a substantial and informative introduction.
Contents
Introduction: Prémontval's Life and Thought
Preface: Prémontval at the Academy
Abbreviations
Chapter 1: Theotimus; Fragment of a Discourse Read at the Academy, October 19, 1752
Chapter 2: Thoughts on Freedom
Chapter 3: Remark on the Alleged Distinction between Absolute Necessity and Hypothetical Necessity Conceived by Philosophers for the Explanation of Freedom: Memoir Read at the Royal Academy of Sciences, December 13, 1753
Chapter 4: The Diogenes of d'Alembert (selections)
Chapter 5: On Chance under the Rule of Providence
Chapter 6: Letters to Leonhard Euler and Louis Bertrand, on Epicureanism
Chapter 7: Remark on Mr Wolff's Definition of the Word "Something"
Chapter 8: Reflections on an Almost Universal Failing in the Admiration of Nature's Wonders
Chapter 9: The Chance Organizer
Chapter 10: The Theology of Being, or Chain of Ideas from Being to God (pt. 1)
Chapter 11: The Theology of Being, or Chain of Ideas from Being to God (pt .2)
Chapter 12: On the Physical Self and Moral Self, or, on the Being and the Person
Chapter 13: On the State of Simple Sensation: Whether it can be Capable of Happiness and Woe
Chapter 14: On Psychocracy
Chapter 15: The Continuation of Psychocracy
Chapter 16: Conclusion of Psychocracy
Bibliography
