This is

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You've probably never heard of the late 17th century French philosopher Pierre Bale.

He was raised a Protestant, but spent much of his life in more religiously tolerant Holland.

It's a shame he's not better known, says Anthony Gottlieb.

For Bale's writings are important, most especially, but not exclusively, for what he has to say

about toleration.

Anthony Gottlieb, welcome to Philosophy Bites. Thank you. The topic we're

going to focus on is Pierre Bale. Now very few philosophers will have heard of Pierre

Bale. Who was he? He was a 17th century French Protestant and

it's important that he was a Protestant because at that time very very few people in France

were Protestants. They were persecuted. He had a very hard time and

one of the things he's most important for I think is his work on religious toleration.

He was in fact one of the best-read philosophers of the 18th century

because he was the author of a historical and critical dictionary that was a reference book found in probably more houses than any other

reference book. So he's an advocate of religious toleration as a result of

personal experience? Yes, absolutely. His father and also his brother really

died as a result of it. His brother was in prison and would have been released

if he'd agreed to convert to Catholicism, but he refused.

And Bale never really got over this.

...