La philosophie du bon sens, ou Réflexions philosophique sur lincertitude des connaissances humaines, a lusage des cavaliers et du beau sexe.
first edition Hardcover
1737 · London
by ARGENS, Jean-Baptiste de BOYER (Marquis d) (1703-1771).
London: Aux depens de la compagnie, 1737. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good . M. DCC. XXXVII [1737]. 12mo (158 x 86mm). [xii], 444, [66] pages. Signatures: *(6), A-S(12), T-Z(6), Aa(6), Bb(4). Title printed in red and black. 2 (of 4) full-page engraved plates after authors drawings by Chapon, including the sea-monster in moonlit landscape facing p. 193 and allegorical and astronomical figures facing p. 425. Engraved diagram of angles facing p. 293 and engraved French heraldic device of Monsieur de Boyer, the authors father, on dedication leaf. Woodcut allegorical chapter head and tail-pieces throughout. Period calf with morocco lettering label, marbled endpapers and red edges; Early owners ex-libris in manuscript on title and verso front endpaper (possibly Jeller or J. Eller?) (calf rubbed with some minor gouges, lacking engravings at p. 30 and 312, lightly browned at beginning, rest internally clean and fresh).
First edition of the Marquis dArgens famous and most popular work on common sense and philosophical reasoning printed in London in 1737; far more common is the corrected edition by Olivet printed in The Hague in 1740. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis dArgens (1703-1771) is remembered for his famous libertine novel Thèrese philosophe of 1748. But with his Lettres Juives (Jewish Letters) (1735-1737), dArgens in 1737 anonymously published La philosophie du bon sens (The Philosophy of Common Sense) that was immediately welcomed by Voltaire, who also considered him and ally. By the mid-1730s, dArgens was producing voluminous pages of philosophical writing, so much so that it became necessary for him to flee his bourgeois, Catholic background for the freedom of press enjoyed in Holland. Somewhat ironically, dArgens dedicated this work, in plenty affection, to his father who purportedly disowned him. The Philosophy of Good Sense was produced most likely in Maastricht and published in The Hague in the same years as his fictional correspondence. Understanding the Enlightenment if his age, the underlying premise of the Philosophy of Good Sense is that philosophical thought could, and should, be for everyone dArgens says philosophy is for the most ordinary of minds - for men of the world, cavaliers et du beau sexe, and polite women. All that was needed was a demystification of language, which he believed confused the public and designed this book as a check to vanity and pride and pretenders of those things. So with plenty citations, paradoxical references, his five thought-out reflections, and other forms of wit, dArgens sets out to educate his readers on keeping a healthy dose of skepticism and an independent mind. For his part, Kant identified the Philosophy of Good Sense as a dangerous work, and he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, to partly uproot the disbelieving freethinkers. (Inventory #: JC14457)
First edition of the Marquis dArgens famous and most popular work on common sense and philosophical reasoning printed in London in 1737; far more common is the corrected edition by Olivet printed in The Hague in 1740. Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis dArgens (1703-1771) is remembered for his famous libertine novel Thèrese philosophe of 1748. But with his Lettres Juives (Jewish Letters) (1735-1737), dArgens in 1737 anonymously published La philosophie du bon sens (The Philosophy of Common Sense) that was immediately welcomed by Voltaire, who also considered him and ally. By the mid-1730s, dArgens was producing voluminous pages of philosophical writing, so much so that it became necessary for him to flee his bourgeois, Catholic background for the freedom of press enjoyed in Holland. Somewhat ironically, dArgens dedicated this work, in plenty affection, to his father who purportedly disowned him. The Philosophy of Good Sense was produced most likely in Maastricht and published in The Hague in the same years as his fictional correspondence. Understanding the Enlightenment if his age, the underlying premise of the Philosophy of Good Sense is that philosophical thought could, and should, be for everyone dArgens says philosophy is for the most ordinary of minds - for men of the world, cavaliers et du beau sexe, and polite women. All that was needed was a demystification of language, which he believed confused the public and designed this book as a check to vanity and pride and pretenders of those things. So with plenty citations, paradoxical references, his five thought-out reflections, and other forms of wit, dArgens sets out to educate his readers on keeping a healthy dose of skepticism and an independent mind. For his part, Kant identified the Philosophy of Good Sense as a dangerous work, and he wrote the Critique of Pure Reason in 1781, to partly uproot the disbelieving freethinkers. (Inventory #: JC14457)