René-Joseph de Tournemine (26 April 1661, Rennes – 16 May 1739) was a French Jesuit theologian and philosopher. He founded the Mémoires de Trévoux, the Jesuit learned journal published from 1701 to 1767,[1] and assailed Nicolas Malebranche with the charges of atheism and Spinozism.[2][3]

His Réflexions sur l'athéisme originated as a preface to the Traité de l'existence de Dieu (1713) by Fénelon, and was an effective direct attack on Spinoza; it argued that 'Spinozism' wasn't practically tenable.[4]

A debate with Leibniz on the mind-body problem[5] was prominent in the period.[6]

Tournemine taught the young Voltaire, and became his friend. In correspondence from 1735, however, Voltaire was critical of the Jesuit reception of Newton and Locke.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ http://pagesperso-orange.fr/astrid01/journal_1.htm, in French
  2. ↑ Malebranche
  3. ↑ Jonathan Israel, The Radical Enlightenment (2001), p. 42.
  4. ↑ Israel, p. 299.
  5. ↑ Brandon Look, Leibniz and the "Vinculum Substantiale" (1999), pp. 51-63.
  6. ↑ R. S. Woolhouse, Richard Francks, Leibniz's 'New System' and Associated Contemporary Texts (1997), Chapter 10.
  7. ↑ John W. Yolton, Locke and French Materialism (1991), pp. 46-51.
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