BAYLE, PIERRE - KUKATHAS, CHANDRAN (EDT)

Liberty Fund. Indianapolis. 2005. 639p.Sider. Large paperback. Nice copy. The Philosophical Commentary takes its starting point from the words attributed to Jesus Christ in Luke 14:23, And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be full."" Bayle contends that the word compel cannot mean force. ""From this perspective, he constructs his doctrine of toleration based on the singular importance of conscience. His point is not that coercion usually is ineffective in matters of faith but that, even when effective, it is wrong because it ignores the indispensability of the free conscience. Bayle’s book was translated into English in 1708. The Liberty Fund edition reprints that translation, carefully checked against the French and corrected, with an introduction and annotations designed to make Bayle’s arguments accessible to the twenty-first-century reader. Pierre Bayle (1647 1706), Protestant philosopher and critic, was born in France. In 1675 he became professor of philosophy at Sedan until forced into exile in Rotterdam in 1681, where he published works on religion with a liberal and tolerant tendency. He was dismissed from his position at the Huguenot refugees academy in 1693 following the accusation that he was an agent of France and an enemy of Protestantism. In 1696 he completed his major work, the Dictionnaire historique et critique.