René-Joseph de Tournemine (; 26 April 1661,

Rennes Rennes (; ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany (administrative region), Brittany Regions of F ...

– 16 May 1739) was a French

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

and

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

. He founded the '' Mémoires de Trévoux'', the Jesuit learned journal published from 1701 to 1767, and assailed Nicolas Malebranche with the charges of

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the Existence of God, existence of Deity, deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the ...

and Spinozism. His ''Réflexions sur l'athéisme'' originated as a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literature, literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a ''foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface o ...

to the ''Traité de l'existence de Dieu'' (1713) by Fénelon, and was an effective direct attack on Spinoza; it argued that 'Spinozism' wasn't practically tenable. A debate with Leibniz on the mind-body problem was prominent in the period. Tournemine taught the young

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778), known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' Voltaire (, ; ), was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, philosopher (''philosophe''), satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit ...

, and became his friend. In correspondence from 1735, however, Voltaire was critical of the Jesuit reception of Newton and Locke.John W. Yolton, ''Locke and French Materialism'' (1991), pp. 46-51.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tournemine 1661 births 1739 deaths Clergy from Rennes 17th-century French Jesuits 18th-century French Catholic theologians 18th-century French Jesuits 17th-century French philosophers 18th-century French philosophers French male non-fiction writers French librarians 18th-century French male writers Lycée Louis-le-Grand teachers Writers from Rennes