Naigeon, Jacques-André

Naigeon, Jacques-André 

Born July 15, 1738, in Paris; died there Feb. 28, 1810. French materialist philosopher and atheist. Representative of the younger generation of the Encyclopedists. Member of the Instituí de France (1795) and the Académie Française (1803).

Naigeon was P. Holbach’s secretary and closest associate. He helped in the writing of Holbach’s The System of Nature, Christianity Unveiled, and other works. He directed the underground foreign publication of many works by Holbach and also edited works by Montaigne, Rousseau, and Diderot. Naigeon is believed to be the principal author of the anonymously published Le Militaire philosophe (1768; Russian translation, 1925), which in 1771 was placed on the papal Index of Forbidden Books.

Naigeon contributed to C. J. Panckoucke’s Encyclopédic mé-thodique, a work consisting of separate dictionaries, editing the Dictionnaire de la philosophic ancienne et moderne (vols. 1–3, 1791–94). Panckoucke’s publication was conceived as a continuation of and a supplement to corresponding sections of Diderot’s Encyclopedia.

WORKS

Mémoires historiques et philosophiques sur la vie et les ouvrages de D. Diderot. Paris, 1821.

REFERENCES

Voronitsyn, I. P. Istoriia ateizma, 3rd ed. [Riazan’, 1930.]
Niiakii, V. “Zh.-A. Nezhon: K 150-letiiu so dnia smerti.” Nauka i religiia. 1960, no. 2.
Naville, P. P. T. d’Holbach et la philosophie scientifique au XVIII’ siécle, 4th ed. Paris, 1943. Pages 97–101; 160–65.

V. N. KUZNETSOV