ABSTRACT

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts covered in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides a synthesis of the state of the art. It focuses on the research on the Radical Enlightenment by a series of new studies. The book also argues that the defining features of the Radical Enlightenment are the rejection of religious authority in politics, law, and education, on the one hand, and the endorsement of democratizing republicanism, on the other. It also elaborates on some of themes in The Radical Enlightenment, Pantheists, Freemasons and Republicans. The book then examines the social and political work of Baron d'Holbach in order to investigate whether the distinction between the Moderate and the Radical Enlightenment can be neatly made. It then explains the demise of Spinozism in the early eighteenth century in a crucial hub in the spread of radicalism: the Dutch Republic.