Should the History of Enlightenment Materialism be Rewritten? On the Occasion of the New Edition of the Helvetius' Complete Works

The new edition of the Complete Works of Helvetius (Paris, Champion, 2011-2020, 3 vol.) provided by us presents for the first time correctly edited texts, without the abusive interventions of Lefebvre de La Roche whose published edition in 1795 was still authoritative in the 20th century. Thanks to a letter quoted for the first time in its entirety in volume iii, we now know that it was not the reading of Locke but of Bayle that turned young Helvetius away from religion and caused a revolution in his mind. The principles of his philosophy had already been broadly elaborated around 1730: witness the Recueil de notes, also published in volume III, which contains several passages that leave no doubt about his atheism and anti-finalism. We know that the first version of De l'esprit was ready as early as 1745: if Helvetius had then published his work, the novelty and audacity of his book would have immediately designated him as the bold herald of a new generation, ushering in the second wave of the French Enlightenment with as much brio as La Mettrie, Diderot, Buffon and Rousseau a few years later.