Primary Sources
N.B. This section contains the most up-to-date English translations of Bayle’s complete works as gathered by the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Pierre Bayle, 1734 (2nd ed.), The Dictionary Historical and Critical of Mr Peter Bayle, trans. P. Desmaizeaux, London: Knapton et al..
1987, Pierre Bayle’s Philosophical Commentary. A Modern Translation and Critical Interpretation, trans. Amie Godman Tannenbaum, New York: Peter Lang.
1991, Historical and Critical Dictionary: Selections, trans. Richard H. Popkin, Indianapolis: Hackett.
2000, Bayle: Political Writings, trans. Sally L. Jenkinson, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
2000, Various Thoughts on the Occasion of a Comet, trans. Robert Bartlett, Albany: State University of New York Press.
2000, A Philosophical Commentary on These Words of the Gospel, Luke 14:23, “Compel Them to Come In, That My House May Be Full,” reprinted and introduced by John Kilcullen and Chandran Kukathas, Indianapolis: Liberty Fund.
2013, Pierre Bayle’s The Condition of Wholly Catholic France Under the Reign of Louis the Great (1686), translated and introduced by Charlotte Stanley and John Christian Laursen, History of European Ideas, 1–48.
–––, 2016, Dialogues of Maximus and Themistius , translated, edited, and introduced by Michael W. Hickson, Brill’s Texts and Sources in Intellectual History 256/18, Leiden/Boston: Brill.
–––, 2017, Pierre Bayle’s Reply of a New Convert (1689), translated, edited, and introduced by John Christian Laursen, History of European Ideas, 1–27.
Secondary Sources
Lennon, Thomas M., and Michael Hickson. “Pierre Bayle.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Stanford University, 5 Dec. 2017, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/bayle/#Bib.
This webpage provides a general overview of Bayle's contributions to philosophy, influences, and life. It provides surface-level explanations of his social philosophy, epistemology, and ethics as a jumping off point for further research. A general overview of his life also provides invaluable insight for researching how his life as a Huguenot in Catholic-dominated France impacted his beliefs in skepticism and toleration.
Brush , Craig, 1966, Montaigne and Bayle: Variations on the theme of skepticism, The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff.
This book provides an explanation of Bayle's skeptical view of the world. By contrasting his views with those of other skeptics, it highlights his unique perspective. The book takes particular note of how he reconciles his skepticism with his faith in God as a Protestant.
Irwin, Kristen, forthcoming (2014), “Which Reason? Bayle on the Intractability of Evil,” in New Essays on Leibniz’s Theodicy, edited by Larry M. Jorgensen and Samuel Newlands, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
This essay shows Bayle's controversial response to the Problem of Evil and contrasts it with a contemporary philosopher. His perspective was particularly controversial as it assigned God moral responsibility for wickedness in the world. A source such as this is essential for understanding Bayle's moral and religious philosophy.
Solère, Jean-Luc, 2016, “The Coherence of Bayle’s Theory of Toleration”, Journal of the History of Philosophy, 54(1): 21–46.
This paper has been lauded as one of the strongest defenses of and summaries of Bayle's perspective on toleration. This has long been held as one of Bayle's weaker arguments, with scholars saying that many of his arguments fall into reductio ad absurdum. This takes into account these criticisms, charitably synthesizing Bayle's many theories that tend to fail on their own into a unified defense of religious toleration.