Good Sense

Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d‘, 1723-1789Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

4.0

Word count: 349K words
Chapters: 35

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971, and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Good Sense by Baron d'Holbach. Author: Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d', 1723-1789. Language: English. Class: BL: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion: Religion: General, Miscellaneous and Atheism. Release Date: Jan 1, 2005

Editor's review

Good Sense is a philosophical work written in English by Baron d'Holbach, falling under religion, atheism, and general philosophy. Its value lies in examining religious ideas and the bounds of reason in a plain, commonsense voice, carrying the typical argumentative temper of the Enlightenment rather than building a dense system. As a free eBook from Project Gutenberg, it reads more like a directly accessible text in intellectual history: the language is relatively plain and the paragraphs move briskly, suited to reading in segments on a commute or in the evening, using annotations to trace the author's line of argument. Readers will do better to treat it as an entry point into the atheistic and naturalistic tendencies of eighteenth-century French Enlightenment thought than as a strict scholarly reference. Note that it is an English-language text and the electronic edition comes from a public-domain project; read it primarily for the flow of ideas and do not expect detailed modern editorial notes or an introduction.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in Enlightenment philosophy and atheistic thought
Readers who wish to encounter a public-domain philosophical text in English
Humanities students needing supplementary material for intellectual history courses
Those who enjoy short, argumentative paragraphs and reading with annotations in segments

Not a good fit for

Professional philosophy researchers expecting modern scholarly translation, annotation, and a detailed introduction
Ordinary readers who struggle with English and would prefer a Chinese translation
Those seeking a systematic history of philosophy rather than a single treatise

Reading tips

Read the table of contents and the opening sections first, marking core concepts the author returns to before reading through.
After each chapter, summarize its argument in two or three sentences to avoid being carried away by the argumentative tone.
Read alongside a general history of the Enlightenment or a reference work on philosophy to fill in the background.
Use the eBook's search function to look up keywords and organize the author's basic positions on religion and reason.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a philosophical work?

It is a philosophical work by Baron d'Holbach, falling under religion, atheism, and general philosophy; it is not a work of fiction. Read it as an argumentative essay, focusing on claims and reasoning rather than expecting a plot.

Can I read it without a background in philosophy?

You can try, but patience is needed. The language is relatively plain and the arguments mostly revolve around common sense and reason; if you lack background on the Enlightenment, it is easier to grasp its target if you first read the relevant chapters of a concise history of philosophy.

Does this electronic edition have modern annotations?

The information indicates it comes from a public-domain eBook on Project Gutenberg, an early-released English text that usually does not include the detailed annotations and introduction of a modern scholarly edition. You can annotate it yourself or draw on external histories of philosophy for background.

Is it better to read the whole book or selected parts?

Both approaches work. If time is limited, read by chapter topic and take summaries; if you want to grasp the overall argument, read it through, but pause after each chapter to summarize the main points so you do not remember only the argumentative tone and miss the structure of the reasoning.

Comments

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About the author

Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d‘, 1723-1789 Author

Paul Henri Thiry, Baron d’Holbach (1723–1789) was a French philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment. Public information about his life is limited, so his biography should not be over-speculated; nevertheless, the nine works held in the collection clearly show his main direction: criticising religious superstition and ecclesiastical authority from a rationalist and atheistic standpoint, and setting out the laws of nature and morality in systematic form. The two-volume System of Nature is his most representative work, alongside Superstition in All Ages, Good Sense, and Christianity Unveiled. These works often take the form of polemical philosophical essays and letters, written in a direct style with closely argued reasoning. In the common classification his books are placed under motivational growth, but their core is really the intellectual criticism of the Enlightenment, which has had some influence on later traditions of free thought and religious criticism.