Nicolas Antoine Boulanger
Nicolas Antoine Boulanger (born November 11, 1722 in Paris , † September 16, 1759 ibid) was a French engineer , scientist , linguist , philosophical historian and encyclopedist .
Live and act
Born the son of a paper merchant, he first studied mathematics and later ancient languages.
All of Boulanger's important works were published after his death, so that he only gained notoriety posthumously . Claude Adrien Helvétius, with the participation of Paul Henri Thiry d'Holbach and Denis Diderot, helped in the publication of his works .
Boulanger's well-known works include Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental (1761) and L'Antiquité dévoilée par ses usages (1766). In these works he developed the theory that the origins of religion and despotism were to be found in the response of early societies to natural disasters. As an example, he cites the global flood disasters that can be found in the mythology of several cultures.
Because of his thesis of the traumatic origin of organized religion and political authoritarianism , Boulanger was one of the authors most discussed among French philosophers.
The French philosopher d'Holbach published his work Christianisme dévoilé , which was critical of religion, two years after the death of Nicolas Antoine Boulanger in 1761 under the pseudonym "Boulanger". But he also took care of the publication of some of his writings.
His work Les Anecdotes de la Nature of around 600 pages, which was never published but circulated in a few copies, plays a role in the history of geology and influenced Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon , Denis Diderot and Nicolas Desmarest .
He worked for the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers with legal articles.
Works (selection)
- Nouvelle mappemonde dediée au progrès de nos connaissances , engraved by Pierre-Philippe Choffard , 1760 ( PDF )
- Recherches sur l'origine du despotisme oriental , 1761. Réédition: Paris, Hachette, 1972 ( PDF )
- L'Antiquité dévoilée par ses usages, ou Examen critique des principales opinions, cérémonies et institutions religieuses et politiques des différents peuples de la terre , 1766. Réédition: Paris, Hachette, 1972 ( PDF )
- Le Christianisme dévoilé, ou Examen des principes et des effets de la religion chrétienne , 1766 ( PDF )
- Governorate , 1776 ( PDF )
- Essai philosophique sur le gouvernement, où l'on prouve l'influence de la religion sur la politique , 1788.
- Dissertation sur saint Pierre in Examen critique de la vie et des ouvrages de saint Paul , translated from the English by d'Holbach, 1790. Réédition: Paris, Hachette, 1972 ( PDF )
- Œuvres mêlées, contenant différents articles extraits de l'Encyclopédie, savoir: Corvées, Déluges, Guêtres, Langue hébraïque , 1791
- Œuvres de Boulanger , 10 vol., 1791
- Œuvres de Boulanger , 6 vol., 1794. Réédition: Genève Slatkine reprints, 1971
- Éditions modern
- Dissertation on Élie et Enoch , édition critique établie et annotée par Paul Sadrin, Besançon, Université de Besançon, 1991
- Anecdotes physiques de l'histoire de la nature, avec La nouvelle mappemonde, et le Mémoire sur une nouvelle mappemonde , édition critique, textes établis et commentés par Pierre Boutin, Paris, H. Champion, 2006
- Œuvres complètes. Vol 1 , Paris, H. Champion, 2011
literature
- Alan Charles Kors : D'Holbach's Coterie: An Enlightenment in Paris, p. 35 f. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1976, ISBN 0-691-05224-7
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank A. Kafker: Notices sur les auteurs of dix-sept volumes de "discours" de l'Encyclopédie. Research on Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie. 1989, Volume 7, Numéro 7, p. 133
- ^ Adrian Room: Dictionary of Pseudonyms. NC: McFarland, Jefferson, 2010 ISBN 0-7864-4373-1 , p. 71 online
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Boulanger, Nicolas Antoine |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French engineer, scientist, linguist, philosophical historian and encyclopedist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 11, 1722 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Paris |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 16, 1759 |
| Place of death | Paris |