Paul Henri Thiery, known as Baron d'Holbach, was an 18th-century French philosopher, writer, and encyclopedist. He was a prominent figure of the Enlightenment period, known for his radical views on religion, morality, and politics. D'Holbach was born in 1723 in Edesheim, a small town in the Palatinate region of Germany. He moved to Paris in the 1740s and became a wealthy merchant and patron of the arts. He also became a prominent member of the intellectual circles of the time, hosting salons and befriending some of the most famous philosophers and writers of the era, such as Diderot, Rousseau, and Hume. His most famous work is The System of Nature, in which he presents a materialist and atheistic worldview, arguing that the universe is governed by natural laws rather than divine intervention.
