Abstract

D’Holbach, with his scientific writings, takes his place among the eighteenth-century geologist debates. Moreover, a study of the Système de la Nature shows that d’Holbach aimed at using the heterodox aspects of geological subjects to set up his philosophical system. A ‘cyclical’ and ‘catastrophist’ theory of the earth matched with materialism, particularly towards the controversy on the deistic conception of nature, the eternity of matter and the ‘physical’ causes of religious phenomena.