Poorly written sketches of interesting people
Ancient and Modern Celebrated Freethinkers is the American reprint of a work previously published in England in 1857 under the title Half-Hours with the Freethinkers. It is a collection of what appear to have been columns in a periodical, though the title of the journal is never named. The book provides profiles of 23 important freethinkers throughout history, a group that broadly includes atheists, pantheists, deists, and other heretics who publicly disagreed with Christian dogma. The essays are written by Charles Bradlaugh (writing under the pseudonym of Iconoclast), A. Collins, and J. Watts.
Bradlaugh was a prominent spokesman for freethought in his own right, but his writing here, and that of his colleagues, leaves much to be desired. The essays are a mixture of biographical sketches, philosophical summary, adulatory tribute, and textual excerpts. Unfortunately the authors rely far too heavily on the latter. Many of the chapters contain very little biographical content and instead rather lazily reproduce extensive and not judiciously edited excerpts of the subjects’ writings. Baruch Spinoza, for example, led an interesting life, but his chapter is mostly one big chunk taken from his Ethics, which I’d already read. One of the reasons I pick up a book like this is because I don’t want to read Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poetry; I just want to get an idea of his philosophical thought. Bradlaugh, however, chooses to reprint page after page of Shelley’s poetry when two summary paragraphs on the poet’s freethought views would have been more useful and effective. As far as biographical content goes, the best you can hope for is maybe two or three interesting facts about each person’s life, and for some of the lesser known personages you get almost no idea of who they were. Rather than really trying to educate readers, the authors write in a “but of course you already know this” tone that is strange and off-putting.
Because of the heavy reliance on excerpts, two of the more interesting entries are about ancient authors whose written works no longer exist: Epicurus and Zeno of Citium (the founder of Stoicism). With the exception of these two ancient thinkers and Spinoza, almost all the remaining figures are 17th or 18th century deists, meaning those who believed in an impartial creator god as opposed to the anthropomorphic Judeo-Christian deity who judges man and answers his prayers. The authors themselves are atheists, but they view the heretical thinking of these deists with admiration as necessary precursors toward modern atheism. A few of the subjects were bona fide members of the clergy who departed from church doctrine, and their excerpts tend to be long and tedious catalogs of biblical inaccuracies. Robert Taylor’s chapter consists almost entirely of Bible quotes while Joseph Barker focuses on the error-prone process of translating holy scripture. To 21st century freethinkers, this stuff is old hat and makes for a boring read, unless you are a fundamentalist Christian thinking of leaving the Church, in which case you could probably find a better book to guide you than this 19th century anthology.
I was hoping for a collection of biographical sketches, but what I got was far less interesting. The book did very briefly introduce me to some thinkers of which I was unfamiliar, and for that I am thankful. There are a few choice chapters, like the ones on David Hume or Frances Wright D’Arusmont, the only woman represented here. In general, however, the text was mostly dull and annoying. For those interested in the history of freethought, I would recommend the 1889 work compiled by Joseph Mazzini Wheeler, A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations, a far more interesting work than this collection by Bradlaugh and company.
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A concise introduction to the Irish Voltaire
This brief book amounts to little more than an extensive article, read in about a half hour’s time, but the price of the Kindle file is appropriate for the content. It is not a complete biography of John Toland, but a concise summary of his philosophical career. The text is well written and the author gives a good sense of the personality of the man. Toland was notorious for his championing of reason over religion. He was the first person ever to be referred to as a “freethinker,” and Toland himself coined the term “pantheism” to describe the philosophy of Spinoza, of whom he was a disciple. A contemporary of such philosophical luminaries as Berkeley, Leibniz, and Locke, Toland never enjoyed the renown or respect they received, largely because his works were too controversial for his time. The picture Duggan paints here is of a man who not only welcomed such controversy but enthusiastically pursued it.
Toland was Irish, the author is Irish, and the purpose of this book is largely to bring attention to Toland’s Irishness. As such, some of the material may seem a bit unnecessary to the American reader, such as minute details about the history of Catholicism in Ireland. Overall, however, it’s an enlightening piece of writing and worth the time spent. Its value is increased by a comprehensive bibliography of Toland’s works. Anyone looking to learn more about this lesser-known figure of the Enlightenment should consider this a useful addition to their Kindle library.
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“All Things are from the Whole, and the Whole is from all Things.”
Pantheism is a metaphysical view that asserts that God is inseparable from the physical universe. This God, however, bears little resemblance to the Christian, Moslem, or Judaic God. In fact, among Pantheists the word “God” is often interchangeable with words like “Nature”, “Soul”, or “Mind”. Most religions of the world are dualistic philosophies which view the world as being comprised of two substances, matter and spirit. Most Pantheists, on the other hand, are monists who believe the universe is composed of only one substance (matter), and that any divinity, intelligence, or spirit must be an inherent quality of that matter. Thus this divinity permeates the entire universe and inhabits all things. Everything is a part of and subject to the governing order of the natural universe, and nothing, not even God nor human consciousness, resides outside of physical reality. Many of the ancient Greek and Roman philosophers were Pantheists, as were the early Hindus and the Chinese Taoists. The most prominent Pantheist in the Western philosophical canon is Baruch de Spinoza, in whose work John Toland, the author of Pantheisticon, was certainly well-versed.
Toland was an Irish philosopher and outspoken freethinker who often published writings attacking conventional religious views. Pantheisticon was first published in Latin in 1720; the first English translation appeared in 1751. It is a brief booklet, little more than 100 small pages. Toland devotes about half the book to an explanation of the basic concepts of Pantheism. What he has to say on the subject is in many ways a rehash of Spinoza, but less mathematically logical in its construction and harder to understand. At times it’s even difficult to determine whether Toland is proposing a monistic or dualistic form of Pantheism. He makes digressions into physics and astronomy that do little to clarify his position, especially when penned in the prose stylings of three centuries past.
In the second half of the book Toland presents something far more original and unique. He asserts that throughout the Europe of his time there existed Socratic Societies, brotherhoods of Pantheists who, in the tradition of the ancient Greeks and Romans, gathered for banquets and engaged in philosophical discourse. Toland transcribes the “Form” of these meetings, a sort of liturgy that’s to be recited at these secret dinners, which include many quotes from their patron saint Cicero and call-and-response hymns devoted to the triumph of reason over superstition. Whether or not societies of this sort actually existed, the sort of pan-European network that Toland proposes here seems unlikely. It’s more probable that Toland’s intention is to inspire such brotherhoods, and create for the disciples of reason something resembling an organized religion.
If you really want to get a thorough understanding of Pantheism, this is not the book to read. For that I would suggest The Ethics by Spinoza. Nevertheless, if you are a freethinker, you’ll get a big kick out of the Pantheisticon. It gives one the feeling that you’re not alone in the world, that somewhere out there exists a brotherhood of like-minded heathens who value reason over superstition and scientific investigation over dogma. The book is also well stocked with quotable gems, for example, “The Sun is my Father, the Earth is my Mother, the World’s my Country, and all Men are my Relations.” Words to live by for the human race, to be sure.
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