Access to the full content is only available to members of institutions that have purchased access. If you belong to such an institution, please log in or find out more about how to order.


Print

Contents

Toland, John (1670–1722)

DOI
10.4324/9780415249126-N100-1
DOI: 10.4324/9780415249126-N100-1
Version: v1,  Published online: 1998
Retrieved March 28, 2024, from https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/toland-john-1670-1722/v-1

Article Summary

Deist, freethinker and political republican, the Irishman John Toland’s reputation is closely associated with the radical attack on Christian metaphysics and institutions in the Augustan period. His philosophical achievement was to turn the more erudite thinking of Spinoza, Hobbes and Locke into a popular polemic against the shibboleths of orthodox religious belief. In Christianity Not Mysterious (1696), burnt in Dublin by Parliamentary command in 1697, he exploited and extended the epistemology of Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding into a revision of Christian descriptions of the relationship between faith and knowledge, and a consequent defence of liberty of thought and belief.

Print
Citing this article:
Champion, J.A.I.. Toland, John (1670–1722), 1998, doi:10.4324/9780415249126-N100-1. Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Taylor and Francis, https://www.rep.routledge.com/articles/biographical/toland-john-1670-1722/v-1.
Copyright © 1998-2024 Routledge.

Related Searches

Periods