Some Confusions about Early Modern Deism
Today, 'deism' is often characterized in terms of an image of God as an absent watchmaker—a designer, usually conceived in fairly anthropomorphic terms, who set the world going and walked away, not only never intervening in history but also not caring about us and how we live our lives. This conception often informs discussions about religion in the American founding, the French Revolution, etc., as well as discussions in philosophy. However, this is not how deism was understood in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the first place, the definition of 'deism' is, in a slogan, the sufficiency of natural...
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