Les mots et les choses : the obscenity of Pierre Bayle

Abstract

Pierre Bayle's Dictionnaire historique et critique (1696) was notorious not only for its irreligious doctrines, but also for its ‘obscenities’. In the second edition Bayle added an ‘Éclaircissement’, in which he defended himself against accusations of lewdness while providing a historical, philosophical, and literary analysis of what it means to write obscenity. This article discusses Bayle's ‘obscenities’ in the various editions of the Dictionnaire, as well as his self-defence and theory of transgressive speech, and analyses his distinction between words, things, and ideas. It marks the obscenities as a progressive political move in the Republic of Letters of Bayle's day.