ARGENS, JEAN-BAPTISTE DE BOYER, MARQUIS D'

(marquess of) born June 27, 1703, Aix-en-Provence, Fr. died Jan. 12, 1771, Toulon French writer who helped disseminate the skeptical ideas of the Enlightenment by addressing his polemical writings on philosophy, religion, and history to a popular readership. Argens's writings simplified the unorthodox empirical reasoning of such Philosophes as Pierre Bayle, Bernard de Fontenelle, and Voltaire; the latter considered him an ally. Of an aristocratic Catholic family, he led a life of dissipation in his youth. He joined the army and then eloped to Spain; at one time he attempted suicide. He spent 25 years in the court of Frederick the Great as chamberlain, producing 18 volumes of letters, Correspondance philosophique. As a freethinker, he challenged authoritarian religion and scholasticism, relying on empirical reason and personal ethics. His Lettres juives (1738; Jewish Letters), Lettres cabalistiques (1741; Cabalistic Letters), and Lettres chinoises (173940; Chinese Letters) are patterned after Montesquieu's Lettres persanes.