Theophrastus redivivus

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The Theophrastus redivivus (German: "The Resurrected Theophrastus") is a neo-Latin manuscript that was published without an author's name, is dated around 1659 and of which a German translation is still missing. The title is an allusion to a lost work by the Aristotle student Theophrastus of Eresus , the Epitome (Compendium) Περì Θεῶν (About Gods), in which all anti-religious arguments that have ever been presented are compiled. The anonymous author sees himself as a redivivus of Theophrastus of Eresus. He would like to be a second Theophrastus and create a new compendium that will contain all the arguments that have been put forward against religions since ancient times. The author published his free- spirited work anonymously - because of its subversiveness and the danger to life and limb that would have threatened a publicly known author of such a compilation at that time. It could only be disseminated clandestinely , i.e. clandestinely .

A modern academic philosopher determines the rank of the work in the history of philosophy as follows:

"It is the first modern work to present an atheistic system and a criticism of religion that fundamentally attacks the previous worldview ."

- Gianni Paganini: How legislators become fraudsters. A Philosophical Archeology of Radical Libertinism

Structure and theses of Theophrastus redivivus

Outline of the work

The "Theophrastus redivivus" is divided into a Proöm and six tracts ("tractatus"), also called books ("libri"). Each of the six tracts is in turn divided into several chapters ("capita").

  1. Tractatus primus qui est "de Diis" - About the gods
  2. Tractatus secundus qui est "de Mundo" - About the world
  3. Tractatus tertius qui est "de religione" - About religion
  4. Tractatus quartus qui est "de anima et de inferis" - About the soul and hell
  5. Tractatus quintus qui est "de contemnenda morte" - About the contempt for death
  6. Tractatus sextus qui est "de vita secundum natura" - About the natural life

Theses of Anonymous

As a philosophical position, the work represents materialistic atheism.

In the Proömium it says:

"Etenim ex antiquorun aliorumque philosophorum sententia deum non esse referam, mundumque aeternum, anima mortalem, inferos fabulosos, religionem artem politicam et astutorum commentum, mortem item esse contemnendam tamquam from illa nihil superfuturum in… The librosemum opus opus in ... suum distribuit, partiri libet. Primus erit di diis, secondus de mundo, tertius de religione, quartus de anima et de inferis, quintus de contemnenda morte, sextus de vita secundum naturam. Quae omnia ad deos ipsos pertinent. Si enim deos non esse demonstratur, caetera absque ullo negotio probantur. "

“So I use the teachings of the ancient philosophers and thinkers to show that God does not exist, that the world is eternal, that the soul is mortal, that Hell is nothing but a fairy tale and that religion is a political device and it is a cunning deception that death is abhorrent because nothing can withstand it ... So, as Theophrastus of Eresus once did, I have divided the work into six books: the first on the gods, the second on the world, and the third about religion, the fourth about soul and hell, the fifth about the contempt for death, the sixth about natural life. All of this is part of dealing with the gods. If it has been proven that the gods do not exist, then the rest goes without saying. "

- Theophrastus redivivus : p. 8th

The Anonymous would like to present all arguments that have been raised against belief in God and against religions since antiquity. In his compilation he quotes ancient atheistic philosophers: the eponymous Theophrastus of Eresus , Protagoras , Diagoras of Melos , Euhemeros , Theodorus Atheos , (“Theodorus the godless”), Lucretius , Sextus Empiricus , as well as free-spirited authors from the Renaissance to the 17th century. Century; Pietro Pomponazzi , Lucilio Vanini , Michel de Montaigne , Machiavelli , Pierre Charron and Gabriel Naudé .

The free-thinking author advocates the thesis that politics and religion deceive people and presents the topos of the three deceivers , which the atheist Curé Jean Meslier will take up again in his memoire at the beginning of the 18th century. He quotes a heretical saying that is attributed to the Hohenstaufen emperor Friedrich II :

"[There are] only three deceivers who betray the people, namely Moses, Jesus and Mohammed."

- Theophrastus redivivus : p. 528

"Only human reason, namely the cunning of cunning people who want to come to power, has invented everything that has been said about gods: without this invention it would be difficult for people to secure the obedience of the people's soul."

- Theophrastus redivivus : p. 341

Theophrastus redivivus also considers reason incompatible with the mysteries of faith, such as belief in miracles , transubstantiation , and the Trinity . Contrary to what Moses and the creation story of Genesis claim, the world has no beginning and no origin; it is rather eternal, has always existed and is indestructible.

History of transmission and reception

To date, four manuscripts by Theophrastus redivivus are known: Bibliothèque nationale de France , Paris, manuscript P (lat. 9324, 18th century); Austrian National Library, Vienna, manuscripts W (Cod. 11451) and H (Cod. 10405-10406); Manuscript L Lennik , Belgium (in the collection of Jérôme Vercruysse).

These manuscripts remained hidden and unpublished until the 20th century. Few intellectuals knew of its existence and its frontal attack on religions and the church. Even Ira O. Wade, who in 1938 gave the humanities the decisive impetus for researching clandestine literature, still believed that the work was lost. Stanislaus von Dunin-Borkowski discovered the Viennese manuscripts by chance ; The British Romanist John Stephenson Spink had already come across the 1090-page manuscript of Theophrastus redivivus while doing neo-Latin research in the French National Library.

Manuscript and critical work edition

  • Theophrastus redivivus sive historia de iis, quae dicuntur de Diis, de mundo, de religione, de anima, inferis et daemonibus, de contemnenda morte, de vita secundum naturam. Opus ex Philosophorum opinionibus constructum et doctissimis Theologis ad diruendum propositum. Manuscript of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9324, XVIII. Century, online edition
  • Theophrastus redivivus. Edizione prima e critica a cura di Guido Canziani e Gianni Paganini, La Nuova Italia Editrice, Firenze 1981–1982, two volumes, volume primo: introduzione - nota storico - critica - tratti I – II, ISBN 88-221-0013-1 , volume secondo: tratti II-VI - bibliografia - indici, ISBN 88-221-0031-X .

Secondary literature

  • Olivier Bloch: Theophrastus redivivus. In: Jean Pierre Schobinger (ed.): The philosophy of the 17th century. Vol. 2/1. Schwabe, Basel 1993, ISBN 3-7965-0934-7 , pp. 258-261.
  • Justine Le Floc'h: Theophrastus redivivus. Introduction à un manuscrit clandestin du XVIIe siècle. Online in French on the server of the LuRens student association. Contribution by a student of the master's course "Littérature neo-latine" by Prof. Isabelle Pantin, École normal supérieure , rue d'Ulm, Paris: 2011.
  • Tullio Gregory: Theophrastus redivivus. Erudizione e ateismo nel Seicento. A. Morano, Napoli 1979.
  • Jonathan I. Israel, Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Radical Enlightenment . Suhrkamp Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 , Google books .
  • Gianni Paganini: Les philosophies clandestines à l'âge classique. PUF, Paris 2005, ISBN 978-2-13-054181-3
  • Gianni Paganini: How legislators become fraudsters. A Philosophical Archeology of Radical Libertinism. In: Jonathan I. Israel, Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Radical Enlightenment. Suhrkamp Berlin 2014, pp. 49-54, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 , Google books
  • Marcelino Rodríguez Donís (Universidad de Sevilla): El ateísmo en el "Theophrastus Redivivus". Essay in Spanish , in: Thémata. Revista de filosofía. Número 21, 1999, páginas 243-261.
  • Marcelino Rodríguez Donís: El Theophrastus Redivivus y la eternidad del mundo. In: Éndoxa: Series filosóficas, n ° 34, 2014, UNED, Madrid, pp.425-452: essay in Spanish
  • Winfried Schröder : Origins of Atheism. Investigations into the metaphysical and religious criticism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1998, 2nd edition with a new afterword, 2012, ISBN 3-7728-2608-3 , reading samples
  • Winfried Schöder: The death of God and the modern age: Philosophy-historical notes on the connection between atheism and modernity. In: Christel Gärner, Detlef Pollack, Monika Wohlrab-Sahr (eds.): Atheism and religious indifference. Leske + Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3639-0 , pp. 23-40.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The full title of the treatise is: Theophrastus redivivus sive Historia de iis quae dicuntur de diis, de mundo, de religione, de anima, inferis et daemonibus, de contemnenda morte, de vita secundum naturam. Opus ex philosophorum opinionibus constructum et doctissimis theologis ad diruendum propositum. (German: The resurrected Theophrastus or the representation of what has been said about the gods, the world, religion, the soul, hell, the demons, about the contempt for death and the natural life. A work that consists of compiled from the opinions of the philosophers and submitted to the most learned theologians for refutation.)
  2. ↑ On the subject of "Littérature clandestine", underground literature in pre-revolutionary France, see: Gustave Lanson: Questions diverses sur l'histoire de l'esprit philosophique en France avant 1750. In: Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France (RHLF), 19 ( 1912); p. 1-29, 293-317; Ira O. Wade: The Clandestine Organization and Diffusion of Philosophic Ideas in France from 1700 to 1750. First edition 1938, New York 1967; Miguel Benitez Rodriguez: La cara oculta de las luces. Investigaciones sobre los manuscritos filosóficos clandestinos de los siglos XVII y XVIII, Biblioteca Valenciana 2003, ISBN 978-84-482-3462-1 , Review : La face cachée des Lumières: Recherches sur les manuscrits philosophiques clandestins de l'âge classique. (Paris - Oxford: Universitas - Voltaire Foundation, 1996)
  3. ↑ Winfried Schröder : Origins of Atheism. Investigations into the metaphysical and religious criticism of the 17th and 18th centuries. Frommann-Holzboog, Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt 1998, 2nd edition with a new epilogue, 2012, ISBN 3-7728-2608-3 , reading samples, p. 404
  4. ↑ Jonathan I. Israel, Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Radical Enlightenment. Suhrkamp Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 , Google books , p. 49
  5. ↑ Tractatus primus, Caput 1-6
  6. ^ Translation: Wikipedia author Diego de Tenerife
  7. ↑ a b Quoted from: Gianni Paganini: How legislators become fraudsters. A Philosophical Archeology of Radical Libertinism. In: Jonathan I. Israel, Martin Mulsow (Ed.): Radical Enlightenment. Suhrkamp, ​​Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-518-29653-0 , Google Books , p. 50
  8. ↑ Marcelino Rodríguez Donís (Universidad de Sevilla): El ateísmo en el "Theophrastus Redivivus". Essay in Spanish , in: Thémata. Revista de filosofía. Número 21, 1999, páginas 243-261
  9. ^ A b c John-Stephenson Spink: La diffusion des idées matérialistes et anti-religieuses au début du XVIIIe siècle: Le "Theophrastus redivivus". In: Revue d'Histoire littéraire de la France 44 (1937), pp. 248-255, Jstor . - Marcelino Rodríguez Donís: El Theophrastus Redivivus y la eternidad del mundo. In: Éndoxa: Series filosóficas, n ° 34, 2014, UNED, Madrid: Article in Spanish
  10. ^ Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Latin 9324
  11. ↑ Information on Theophrastus redivivus in the database of the Bibliothèque nationale de France .
  12. ↑ Ira O. Wade: The Clandestine Organization and Diffusion of Philosophic Ideas in France from 1700 to 1750. First edition 1938, New York 1967
  13. ↑ op. Cit., Vol. 1, p. LXXIII: This only critical edition of the work, approx. 1,263 pages of neo-Latin text, is based on the four manuscripts found to date: W: (Vienna), cod. 11,451 from the Austrian National Library (seven hundred numbered pages); H: (Vienna) Austrian National Library, codd. 10405 and 10406; P: (Paris) French National Library, ms lat. 9324; L: Lennik (Belgium), Collection Prof. Dr. Jerôme Vercruysse. op. cit. vol 1, p. XI: Canziani and Paganini received the decisive impulse for the publication of a critical edition of Theophrastus redivivus from reading Tullio Gregory's study: Theophrastus redivivus. Erudizione e ateismo nel Seicento , A. Morano, Napoli 1979.