LA METAPHYSIQUE DE DOM DESCHAMPS ET LE MATERIALISME

The Metaphysics of Dom Deschamps and Materialism · The immanentist metaphysics of the heterodox Benedictine monk Dom Deschamps – of which we have only come to adequate knowledge in recent times –, is centered around the idea of Totality, with its complex internal articulations (Whole, the Whole, Existence). From a historical point of view, this metaphysics can only be adequately framed, on a conceptual level, in relation to the great materialist synthe- ses of the 18th century (D’Holbach, Diderot, Meslier, etc.) with which it enters into polemic. The concept of the Whole, in Dom Deschamps, coincides with that of Matter, as it was understood at the time, and the moral and political implications proceed in the direction of an egalitarianism that upholds the principle of a radical dis-appropriation of man within an «état de mœurs» linked to the direct vision of Truth. The outcome is the communism of goods and individuals, which presents entirely original aspects. This essay investigates the relationship of Dom Deschamps’s onto-metaphysics (metaphysics based on real Being) with the new metaphysics produced by the affirmation of Lockian empiricism. It follows the development of the notion of the Whole, in relation to the pre-Lockean metaphysical tradition, to Spinoza of the Theologico-Political Treatise (concept of freedom as obedience to the laws of necessity/Whole) and finally leads to the analy- sis of a materialistic anthropology, founded on the Truth of being-Whole that imposes universal community and equality of essence.