Jacques-André Naigeon
Jacques-André Naigeon (15 July 1738,
Biography
After trying his hand at painting and sculpture, Naigeon became a friend and associate of
Naigeon became the editor, compiler and commentator of Diderot's works after the latter made him his literary executor. He published an incomplete edition of Diderot's works in 1798 after writing Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur la vie et les ouvrages de Diderot, an unfinished commentary on his life and works.
Naigeon's only original stand-alone work was Le militaire philosophe, ou Difficultés sur la religion, proposées au Père Malebranche (London and Amsterdam, 1768), which was based on an earlier anonymous manuscript and whose final chapter was written by d'Holbach. This work mostly repeated the atheist, anti-Christian, determinist materialist arguments found in the radical literature of the second half of the 18th century.
Naigeon continued his attacks on religion in his Dictionary of Ancient and Modern Philosophy in the
Bibliography
Naigeon's works
- Les Chinois, a comedy written with Charles Simon Favart (1756)
- Le Militaire philosophe ou, Difficultés sur la religion proposées au R.P. Malebranche (London and Amsterdam, 1768)
- Éloge de La Fontaine (1775)
- Adresse à l'Assemblée nationale sur la liberté des opinions (1790)
- Dictionnaire de philosophie ancienne et moderne 3 vol. (1791-1794)
- Mémoire sur la vie et les œuvres de Diderot (1821)
Secondary literature
- Alan Charles Kors, "The Atheism of D'Holbach and Naigeon", Atheism from the Reformation to the Enlightenment (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1992)
- Mario Cosenza, "All'ombra dei Lumi. Jacques-André Naigeon philosophe" (Fedoa – Napoli University Press, Napoli, 2020)
References
External links
- Works by or about Jacques-André Naigeon at Internet Archive
- Le militaire philosophe - online text in French