Difference between revisions of "Marquis d'Argens"
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Revision as of 22:50, January 22, 2018
Jean-Baptiste de Boyer, Marquis d'Argens (June 24, 1704 - January 11, 1771) was a French philosopher and writer who made a substantial contribution to the Enlightenment. D'Argens' writings are extremely wide-ranging and include works on philosophy, such as La Philosophie du Bon-Sens, along with French literature and drama, aesthetics, psychology and art criticism. He was an enthusiast of music, theater, opera and painting.
Although he is widely regarded as the author of the novel Thérèse Philosophe (1748) this is a spurious attribution that has been rejected in the most authoritative modern study of d'Argens. [1] [2]
Early Life
D'Argens was born in Aix-en-Provence, the eldest son of a magistrate who was made a marquis in 1720. He was given an intensive Catholic and classical education at the hands of the Jesuits, but became a skeptic and eventually a Deist. An arch-opponent of the Catholic Church, intolerance and religious oppression, his books were frequently denounced by the Inquisition. In 1724 he accompanied the French ambassador on a journey to Constantinople, where he lived for a year. After an adventurous youth, he was disinherited by his father. He then settled for a time in Amsterdam, where he wrote his Memoirs and the celebrated Lettres juives (The Hague, 6 vols, 1738-1742). It was followed by Lettres chinoises (The Hague, 6 vols, 1739-1742), and Lettres cabalistiques (2nd ed., 7 vols, 1769). Next came the Mémoires Secrets de la République des Lettres (7 vols, 1743-1478), afterwards revised and augmented as Histoire de l'esprit humain (Berlin, 14 vols, 1765-1768). He also wrote six novels, which are entertaining, witty and delightful.
Career at Prussian Court
After the success of Lettres Juives made him famous, d'Argens was invited by Frederick the Great of Prussia to his court where he spent the greater part of his career. He was appointed a Royal Chamberlain and Director of the Belles-Lettres section of the Royal Berlin Academy. He married a Berlin actress, Barbe Cochois and had one daughter. D'Argens returned to France in 1769, and died near Toulon on the 11th of January 1771, aged 66.
His epitaph was written by Voltaire: Erroris Inimicvs, Veritatis Amator (The enemy of error, the lover of truth)
He was a friend of Voltaire, Algarotti, Pierre-Louis de Maupertuis, Leonhard Euler, Samuel Formey, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, Charles-Louis de Beausobre, the Abbé de Prades, C.P.E.Bach Friedrich Nicolai and Moses Mendelssohn.
References
- ↑ Julia Gasper, The Marquis d’Argens: A Philosophical Life, Lexington Books, Lanham USA, 2013
- ↑ Julia Gasper, "The Marquis d'Argens and the Authorship of Therese Philosophe" https://www.academia.edu/5337042/The_Marquis_d_Argens_and_the_Authorship_of_Th%C3%A9r%C3%A8se_Philosophe
- Attribution