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BAYLE, PIERRE (1647-1706)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 557 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAYLE, See also:PIERRE (1647-1706) , See also:French philosopher and See also:man of letters, was See also:born on the 18th of See also:November 1647, at le Carlale-See also:Comte, near Pamiers (See also:Ariege). Educated by his See also:father, a Calvinist See also:minister, and at an See also:academy at See also:Puylaurens, he after-wards entered a Jesuit See also:college at See also:Toulouse, and became a See also:Roman See also:Catholic a See also:month later (1669). After seventeen months he resumed his former See also:religion, and, to avoid persecution, fled to See also:Geneva, where he became acquainted with See also:Cartesianism. For some years he acted under the name of Bele as See also:tutor in various Parisian families, but in 1675 he was appointed to the See also:chair of See also:philosophy at the See also:Protestant university of See also:Sedan. In 1681 the university at Sedan was suppressed, but almost immediately afterwards Bayle was appointed See also:professor of philosophy and See also:history at See also:Rotterdam. Here in 1682 he published his famous Pensees diverses sur la comae de i68o and his critique of See also:Maimbourg's See also:work on the history of Calvinism. The See also:great reputation achieved by this critique stirred the envy of Bayle's colleague, P. See also:Jurieu, who had written a See also:book on the same subject. In 1684 Bayle began the publication of his Nouvelles de la republique See also:des lettres, a See also:kind of See also:journal of See also:literary See also:criticism. In 1690 appeared a work entitled Avis important aux refugies, which Jurieu attributed to Bayle, whom he attacked with animosity. After a See also:long See also:quarrel Bayle was deprived of his chair in 1693• He was not depressed by this misfortune, especially as he was at the See also:time closely engaged in the preparation of the See also:Historical and See also:Critical See also:Dictionary (Dictionnaire historique et critique). The remaining years of Bayle's See also:life were devoted to See also:miscellaneous writings, arising in many instances out of criticisms made upon his Dictionary.

He died in See also:

exile at Rotterdam on the 28th of See also:December 17o6. In 1906 a statue in his See also:honour was erected at Pamiers, " la reparation d'un long oubli. Bayle's erudition, despite the See also:low estimate placed upon it by Leclerc, seems to have been very considerable. As a constructive thinker, he did little. As a critic he was second to none in his own time, and even yet one can admire the delicacy and the skill with which he handles his subject. The Nouvelles de la republique des lettres (see See also:Louis P. Betz, P. Bayle and See also:die Nouvelles de la republique des lettres, See also:Zurich, 1896) was the first thorough-going See also:attempt to popularize literature, and it was eminently successful. The Dictionary, however, is Bayle's masterpiece.

End of Article: BAYLE, PIERRE (1647-1706)

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