Positive Atheism

Atheism is mostly portrayed as a negative doctrine, as a reaction against theism, the denial of the existence of God, or as a critique of religious doctrine. This book argues that in the Enlightenment there was a considerable movement towards portraying atheism as a positive doctrine, as a set of affirmative beliefs and claims about the world that go well beyond the negative definition. By exploring four authors from the late seventeenth to the late eighteenth century, the book shows that there is an ethical and political message in the French Enlightenment that carves a place for atheism beyond its reactionary phase. Through the historical critique of Bayle, the affirmation of atheism of Meslier, the systematic ontology of d’Holbach and the dialogical structure of Diderot, atheism is shown to be a complex and evolving philosophy. By the eve of the French revolution, it is a republican, materialist and utilitarian philosophy that has been shaped by these early thinkers of atheism, one that has had a profound impact on subsequent political thought.