BAYLE, PIERRE. – Protestant philosopher and man of letters, b. at Carla (Ariège) on 18 November 1647, d. at Rotterdam on 28 December 1706. In 1669 he abandoned Calvinism to embrace the Catholic faith; but almost immediately he returned to Calvinism. He was at Geneva, then at Paris and Sedan, a professor at the Protestant University. When the latter was closed, he moved to Rotterdam, where he taught at the École illustre from 1681 to 1693. He lost his chair under accusation of irreligion.
B. accepted and carried to its extreme the antithesis between reason and faith. The two terms are absolutely irreconcilable:
revealed dogmas are the perfect antithesis of the most evident truths of natural reason. The merit of the act of faith lies in the volitional, non-rational acceptance of the irrationality of revealed truths. All human knowledge is subject to doubt: theoretically, B. is a sceptic; only through adherence to faith does he emerge from scepticism. The paroxysm with which he accentuated the reason–faith antithesis caused doubts about his sincerity, but at bottom it expressed his tragic inner division. In accordance with his principles, B. advocated religious tolerance. In ethics, since moral activity must be rational, B. affirmed its independence from every religious conviction. His influence, owing to the breadth of his erudition and to the uninhibited manner in which he used it, was extremely widespread and harmful. Encyclopaedism, and Voltaire in particular, were evidently formed according to B.’s method and took as their model, especially in the struggle against the Church and revealed truth, his sharp and ironic criticism and his corrosive scepticism, despite its superficiality.
His major work is the Dictionnaire historique et critique, in 2 vols., Rotterdam 1695–97, which went through many editions. Also noteworthy are the Nouvelles de la république des lettres, a periodical (by him and others), 1684–87; Œuvres diverses, 4 vols., The Hague 1727. All his works (Opera omnia) were repeatedly placed on the Index (v. Index libr. prohib., Roma 1948, p. 42).