James O'Higgins – författare

The Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty of Anthony Collins' was considered by Joseph Priestley and Voltaire to be the best book written on freewill up to their own time. Priestley admitted that it convert­ ed him to determinism and it had a powerful effect on Voltaire in the same direction. It seems important to place in its wider historical context a book which so influenced such men and which greatly impressed the philosophes in general. Therefore - and because such an account has value in itself - the Introduction contains a survey of the freewill controversy from the time of Hobbes to that of Leibniz, giving in some detail the opinions of Hobbes, Locke, Pierre Bayle, William King, Archbishop of Dublin, and Leibniz and an account of the Scholastic doctrine of liberty of indifference - opinions which either influenced Collins or against which he reacted. The value and originality of Collins' works need assessing. He was also at times liable to misinterpret or misunderstand the authorities he quoted. I have, therefore, subjected the Inquiry to a detailed critique. This also gives cross-references to parallel passages in Collins' works and those of the authors who influenced him, and, by discussing the philosophical and theological questions to which his writings give rise, obviates the need for a good many footnotes in the notes that follow the text.

The writing of the second part of this book presented a peculiar difficulty. On the one hand I had the great advantage of having found the first rough draft of the manuscript La Religion du Chretien, corrected and often recorrected. Authorship could eventually be established beyond shadow of doubt, and in the corrections one could see de Vallone changing his opinions as he wrote. On the other the sheer length of the manuscript - about 140,000 words - plus the num­ ber of corrections - well over 3,000, many of them lengthy - the enormous number of references in the text to the Classics, to the Scriptures and Apochrypha, to the Fathers, to Philosophers, ancient and contemporary or near contemporary to de Vallone, and to a considerable number of other contem­ porary authors, all of which would require a footnote (not to speak of other footnotes necessary as comments on the text itself) made the production of a critical edition a financial impossibility. Instead I decided, for the sake of scholars interested in this type of manuscript, to give a full, i. ndeed meticulous­ perhaps too meticulous - digest of the manuscript with a running commentary, showing the influences working on de Vallone, the intellectual atmosphere in which he lived, indicating the significance of all the major revisions and correc­ tions in his text and commenting on what one can only describe as his own world-theory and on his use of his authorities and of their influence upon him.

This book is the study of a man who caught my interest both because of his own character and of the variety of his activities. It is an attempt to see him in his relationship, intellectual and literary, with the Europe of his day, to gauge his position in the development of Seventeenth and Eighteenth century thought, to examine the origins of his ideas and their effect and to place him in the social context of the England of the early Eighteenth century. The period in which he lived, coming at the beginning of the Enlightenment, was seminal for our own world and the man himself is of contemporary significance because of the similarity of his outlook, ifnot of his beliefs, to that of many today. He was at the centre of the major theological controversy of the Seventeen­ twenties and was one of the most contentious figures of his time. I would like to acknowledge my obligation to the scholars and librarians who have assisted me in producing this work: to Dr. E. A. O. Whiteman of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and to Mrs. M. Kneale, late of the same College; to Bodley's librarian Dr. R. Shackleton; to Dr. D. Rogers, Mr. D. G. Neill and to the staff of the Bodleian, especially those who work in Duke Humphrey; to the librarians of Christ Church, All Souls, St. John's, Wadham, Exeter and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford; to Mr. F. G. Emmison, Miss H. E. T.

The writing of the second part of this book presented a peculiar difficulty. On the one hand I had the great advantage of having found the first rough draft of the manuscript La Religion du Chretien, corrected and often recorrected. Authorship could eventually be established beyond shadow of doubt, and in the corrections one could see de Vallone changing his opinions as he wrote. On the other the sheer length of the manuscript - about 140,000 words - plus the num­ ber of corrections - well over 3,000, many of them lengthy - the enormous number of references in the text to the Classics, to the Scriptures and Apochrypha, to the Fathers, to Philosophers, ancient and contemporary or near contemporary to de Vallone, and to a considerable number of other contem­ porary authors, all of which would require a footnote (not to speak of other footnotes necessary as comments on the text itself) made the production of a critical edition a financial impossibility. Instead I decided, for the sake of scholars interested in this type of manuscript, to give a full, i. ndeed meticulous­ perhaps too meticulous - digest of the manuscript with a running commentary, showing the influences working on de Vallone, the intellectual atmosphere in which he lived, indicating the significance of all the major revisions and correc­ tions in his text and commenting on what one can only describe as his own world-theory and on his use of his authorities and of their influence upon him.

The writing of the second part of this book presented a peculiar difficulty. On the one hand I had the great advantage of having found the first rough draft of the manuscript La Religion du Chretien, corrected and often recorrected. Authorship could eventually be established beyond shadow of doubt, and in the corrections one could see de Vallone changing his opinions as he wrote. On the other the sheer length of the manuscript - about 140,000 words - plus the num­ ber of corrections - well over 3,000, many of them lengthy - the enormous number of references in the text to the Classics, to the Scriptures and Apochrypha, to the Fathers, to Philosophers, ancient and contemporary or near contemporary to de Vallone, and to a considerable number of other contem­ porary authors, all of which would require a footnote (not to speak of other footnotes necessary as comments on the text itself) made the production of a critical edition a financial impossibility. Instead I decided, for the sake of scholars interested in this type of manuscript, to give a full, i. ndeed meticulous­ perhaps too meticulous - digest of the manuscript with a running commentary, showing the influences working on de Vallone, the intellectual atmosphere in which he lived, indicating the significance of all the major revisions and correc­ tions in his text and commenting on what one can only describe as his own world-theory and on his use of his authorities and of their influence upon him.

The Philosophical Inquiry concerning Human Liberty of Anthony Collins'' was considered by Joseph Priestley and Voltaire to be the best book written on freewill up to their own time. Priestley admitted that it convert­ ed him to determinism and it had a powerful effect on Voltaire in the same direction. It seems important to place in its wider historical context a book which so influenced such men and which greatly impressed the philosophes in general. Therefore - and because such an account has value in itself - the Introduction contains a survey of the freewill controversy from the time of Hobbes to that of Leibniz, giving in some detail the opinions of Hobbes, Locke, Pierre Bayle, William King, Archbishop of Dublin, and Leibniz and an account of the Scholastic doctrine of liberty of indifference - opinions which either influenced Collins or against which he reacted. The value and originality of Collins'' works need assessing. He was also at times liable to misinterpret or misunderstand the authorities he quoted. I have, therefore, subjected the Inquiry to a detailed critique. This also gives cross-references to parallel passages in Collins'' works and those of the authors who influenced him, and, by discussing the philosophical and theological questions to which his writings give rise, obviates the need for a good many footnotes in the notes that follow the text.

This book is the study of a man who caught my interest both because of his own character and of the variety of his activities. It is an attempt to see him in his relationship, intellectual and literary, with the Europe of his day, to gauge his position in the development of Seventeenth and Eighteenth century thought, to examine the origins of his ideas and their effect and to place him in the social context of the England of the early Eighteenth century. The period in which he lived, coming at the beginning of the Enlightenment, was seminal for our own world and the man himself is of contemporary significance because of the similarity of his outlook, ifnot of his beliefs, to that of many today. He was at the centre of the major theological controversy of the Seventeen­ twenties and was one of the most contentious figures of his time. I would like to acknowledge my obligation to the scholars and librarians who have assisted me in producing this work: to Dr. E. A. O. Whiteman of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, and to Mrs. M. Kneale, late of the same College; to Bodley''s librarian Dr. R. Shackleton; to Dr. D. Rogers, Mr. D. G. Neill and to the staff of the Bodleian, especially those who work in Duke Humphrey; to the librarians of Christ Church, All Souls, St. John''s, Wadham, Exeter and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford; to Mr. F. G. Emmison, Miss H. E. T.