O ATEÍSMO DE HOLBACH À LUZ DE HEGEL

D’Holbachs atheism as seen by Hegel. Despite the central importance of atheism in d'Holbach's materialistic system, it is clear that Hegel's reading of d'Holbach's thought in his Lessons on the Philosophy of History, although original, does not mention it. The reasons for this silence can be easily deduced from what he considered to be the tasks of philosophy in relation to religion, namely to ensure their reconciliation which is conceptually mastered as it realizes the programme of the Christian spiritual world. Atheism could only appear as an irrelevant philosophy, which is why Hegel did not even bother to refute it. Nevertheless we can show that in his criticism of the doctrine of "immediate knowledge" and of religious sentimentalism, Hegel provides a way of justifying philosophically the Baron's atheism by presenting it as the "result" of sentimentalism and the consequence of a religious thought that finitizes its content.