An ethnic German,Paul Holbach(1723–1789) was one of the classic political ideologues of the bourgeois class in the 18th century. His political ideas were part of the revolutionary views of the bourgeois class at that time, which were directed mainly against idealism, religious obscurantism, the feudal system of economic exploitation, and political absolutism.
Both Holbach and other enlighteners throughout Europe at that time left open the space for the people’s right to revolution, i.e., armed change of the system based on the political formula of popular sovereignty.
The overthrow of the system of feudal relations dating back to the early Middle Ages and its replacement by a new system of civil society and capitalist economy certainly had global significance because it showed other countries both in and outside Europe the future development and became a model for later revolutionary changes. French revolutionary political philosophy was a source for all subsequent generations of European countries.
Paul Holbach was an ethnic German but settled definitively in Paris (France), where he became a central figure among the materialist philosophers, who at that time gathered in salons and exchanged their philosophical views on various social issues, including politics. Holbach himself was well acquainted with all previous philosophy. In his works, he accepts and further elaborates materialist thought, connecting it with the study of natural sciences. Thus, Holbach achieved a philosophical synthesis of the French materialist understanding of nature with the English sensualist theory of knowledge. Holbach’s main philosophical work is „The System of Nature“. He also wrote „Natural Politics“, „Christianity Unveiled“, and „The Social System“. He also collaborated on the publication of the French „Encyclopedia“.
He believed, like all other enlighteners and encyclopedists, that in order to remove any supernatural forces from nature, it was necessary, first of all, to oppose a religion based on idealism and belief in proven scientific truth, which was the basis of materialist philosophy. Holbach proceeds from the fact that nature is the cause of everything. Nature exists in itself; it will exist and act forever, and nature is its own cause. The movement of nature is a necessary consequence of its necessary existence. These are the basic positions of Holbach’s materialist monism. He interpreted matter as everything that in any way affects our senses. Holbach rejected the external impulse that sets matter in motion and expressed the idea of the self-motion of matter. He understood movement as displacement, i.e., in the spirit of metaphysical materialism.
With these views, Holbach set out to address the issue of man, who, for him, is a natural being. Man is a product of nature, lives in nature, and is subject to the laws of nature. Man can never free himself from nature and cannot even go beyond nature in his thoughts. Like all materialists, Holbach recognizes sensitivity as one of the characteristics of mobile and specially organized matter. Thinking is the result of highly organized matter. Reason is an ability inherent in organized beings, i.e., beings that are composed in a certain way. Holbach believed that thinking is achieved through feeling and perception. In this way, external reality is reflected, which at the same time encourages man to action, through which he becomes capable of changing himself as well as his social environment.
After his philosophical reflections on the nature of man and his characteristics, Holbach moved on to the development of ethical, social, and political views.
All people in the world are composed of various racial characteristics and differ in their biological and physical makeup. These racial-biological differences are the basis of inequality among people, which are also the foundations of society and morality, and from which the social, moral, and stratification (class) order in the human community arises. Holbach, however, claims that inequality among people is not harmful to them but, on the contrary, beneficial. Holbach explains class stratification by different temperaments and abilities. Food, climate, and air affect the structure of the organism and determine its inclinations. Temperament also depends on upbringing and lifestyle. Therefore, social and state institutions of various natures largely build a person. Of all social and state institutions, the most important for the formation of people’s character is the law (lex), which should reflect the general will of society and the preservation of the general interest.
Reason is able to point people to the right path and happiness. Reason teaches people to value other people. Thanks to reason, a person realizes that other people with whom he lives are necessary for him. Reason also teaches a person to distinguish good from evil. Holbach therefore argued that for personal happiness, the help of other people was necessary. Therefore, it is in the personal interest of each individual to cooperate with other people. The desire for happiness is the true interest of each individual, but happiness can only be achieved in society, i.e., with the help of others.
For Holbach, society represents a whole consisting of a multitude of families and individuals who unite for the reason that they can satisfy mutual needs as much as possible, ensure mutual assistance, and the possibility of peaceful use of the goods given to man by nature and human labor. Accordingly, Holbach concludes that the basic duty of politics, i.e., political action and institutions, is to preserve the social community and remove everything that hinders its sociability, i.e., interpersonal cooperation.
Source: Global Research
