The Linguistic Naturalism of Theophrastus Redivivus (1659?)

Stefano Gensini
University of Salerno
Summary

This paper deals with the linguistic subjects in Theophrastus redivivus (1659?), an anonymous masterpiece of French Free-thinkers movement. Attention is paid, firstly, to the criticism of the concept of god, whose existence is denied mainly on linguistic grounds; secondly, to the anti-Cartesian discussion of the alleged ‘primacy’ of humans, which also is denied with the argument that all animals share both reason and extrinsic discourse, although in forms different from ours. Particular attention is given to the argumentative structure of TR, which reveals an original fusion of Epicurean epistemology and of suggestions borrowed from the ancient Naturalism, notably as found in Aristotle’s Historia animalium

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