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Ovid

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Bayle
Edited by
Sally L. Jenkinson
Sally L. Jenkinson
Affiliation:
University of California, Los Angeles
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Summary

[Bayle uses his article on Ovid to show that theories of creation remained speculative. For life's origins, whether attributed to God or Nature, posed problems for natural philosophy. Contemporaries – he mentions Descartes, Newton, and the atomist, Lami – were engaged in showing the falsity of many commonly held notions, but their improved alternative theories were not necessarily the last word. Through his discussion of Epicurus, who had posed a theory of creation through chance, Bayle recovers a pre-Christian theory of natural selection. In Remark (H), he relates the debate to moral psychology, asking if the contest between reason and passion in the human being might parallel the clash of the elements in the natural world.]

Ovid naso (Publius) … was one of the greatest poets of the age of Augustus … Nature endowed him with so strong a gift of poetry that out of love of the muses he laid aside those projects and strategies that are necessary for attaining positions of dignity. Yet while the inclination to poetry extinguished in him all fire of ambition, it warmed in him, on the other hand, the fervour of love. He was ardently devoted to the pleasures of Venus [(A)], and that was almost his only vice. Not content with loving and making conquests in the way of gallantry, he also taught the public art of love and making oneself loved; that is to say he reduced to the consistency of a system that pernicious science in which Nature gives us only too many lessons …

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Bayle: Political Writings , pp. 209 - 230
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2000

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  • Ovid
  • Bayle
  • Edited by Sally L. Jenkinson, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Bayle: Political Writings
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139163866.022
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  • Ovid
  • Bayle
  • Edited by Sally L. Jenkinson, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Bayle: Political Writings
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139163866.022
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Ovid
  • Bayle
  • Edited by Sally L. Jenkinson, University of California, Los Angeles
  • Book: Bayle: Political Writings
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139163866.022
Available formats
×