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2003
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Françoise Badelon, « L'épicurisme selon Shaftersbury : fébrifuge et imposture », Dix-Huitième Siècle, ID : 10.3406/dhs.2003.2538
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The reference to Epicurus may seem a strange approach to Shaftesbury's work ; nevertheless this English author, who is generally presented as a follower of Stoicism, reserves a particular place for ancient and modern Epicureans. There is no doubt that he sees Epicureanism as an antifebrile treatment, to correct enthusiastic humours, and as an imposture when the Epicurean cure becomes itself the object of devotion by means of stratgems of pleasure. Thus Shaftesbury, like Voltaire, defends the therapeutic use of materialism, as a system which religious enthusiasm forces us to enter in order to provide its antidote. In addition, materialism without atomism, in its hylozoistic version, becomes a doctrine which reveals the power and unity of nature. This is the version of the English author that was translated by Diderot and Robinet.