Online Bayle Seminar 2026: Education and Pedagogy in the philosopher of Rotterdam

The Online Bayle Seminar is a study and research group devoted to the figure of Pierre Bayle. In the very spirit of the “Republic of Letters” so dear to Bayle, it seeks to be both international and interdisciplinary, and aims—thanks to the possibilities offered by online communication—to overcome the divisions between schools and approaches that have sometimes characterized Bayle scholarship. Founded in 2025, the seminar hosted in its first year a series of talks on various themes in Bayle, such as atheism, tolerance, and the Dictionary. It thus provided an opportunity to discover the most recent research on Bayle carried out in Europe as well as in the Americas and Asia.

For this second year, we have chosen to develop the seminar’s format around a concrete theme through which Bayle’s work and thought—and the context in which he evolved—will be analyzed. The objective of this new format is to examine the production of the philosopher of Rotterdam in a more systematic way. Sessions will alternate between reading workshops devoted to the study of selected passages circulated beforehand, and talks on specific topics. The theme for this second year is “Education and Pedagogy in Bayle.” The seminar will begin in 2026.

Whether from a biographical or a philosophical perspective, the question touches closely upon Bayle’s life and writings. As a child, Bayle himself suffered from an irregular schooling, which he recalls in his correspondence and from which he draws lessons in the advice he gives to his brother Joseph. Later, Bayle served as a teacher for almost his entire adult life. As is well known, he first worked as a tutor, in Coppet and Rouen, and then as a professor at Sedan and Rotterdam. His philosophy courses, included among the Miscellaneous Works, are well known. His work as a writer and philosopher is marked by questions of education. The prefaces and forewords of his works not only provide information on the author’s status and his relationship to an ideal reader; they also contain pedagogical reflections that fit more broadly within the theme of education. Likewise, the project of a Journal of the Republic of Letters, based on reviewing recent publications, not only demonstrates an interest in erudition but also affirms the possibility of a learned public and the importance of its education. One should not forget the Reformed context in which Bayle pursued his schooling and his teaching: can one detect confessional markers in his reflections on education?

On a political and theological level, royal legislation concerning the children of the Huguenots raised the issue of the right to educate one’s children according to one’s own religious convictions. Religious controversy during the revocation of the Edict of Nantes also raises the question of the purpose and means of education: should one not “instruct” erring consciences rather than persecute them? At what point can one judge that the other has been sufficiently taught and that his error stems from culpable obstinacy? Can religious truth be taught in the same way to all minds? This question of “pedagogical differentiation” must be correlated in Bayle with his moral anthropology—namely, attention to the place and role of temperament and passions in the psychic and intellectual life of the individual. And this is directly linked to the “prejudices of childhood and education,” where Bayle explicitly equates childhood and education with those factors that hinder the formation and exercise of a critical mind. Although the secondary literature has at times examined these issues in Bayle, the question of education as such has been little studied in his work.

Programme:

Friday 20 February, 2:00 pm: Andy Serin (EPHE-PSL and Paris 1 University): “Text analysis: education and tolerance in the Supplement to the Philosophical Commentary”

Friday 20 March, 2:00 pm: Isabelle Moreau (ENS de Lyon): “Bayle: education and religious identity”

Friday 24 April, 2:00 pm: Ana Carmona (University of Geneva): “Text analysis: the power of prejudices”

Friday 22 May, 2:00 pm: Chiara Musolino (Paris 1 University): “How to read philosophy? The pedagogy of doubt at work in Pierre Bayle”

Practical information:

The sessions will take place online on Fridays at 2:00 pm (French time). The language used is French, but it is possible to participate in English. The videoconference link and the texts can be obtained by sending an email to [email protected].