René-Joseph de Tournemine (pronounced as /fr/; 26 April 1661, Rennes – 16 May 1739) was a French Jesuit theologian and philosopher. He founded the Mémoires de Trévoux, the Jesuit learned journal published from 1701 to 1767,[1] and assailed Nicolas Malebranche with the charges of atheism and Spinozism.[2] [3]
His Réflexions sur l'athéisme originated as a preface 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.[4]
A debate with Leibniz on the mind-body problem[5] was prominent in the period.[6]
Tournemine taught the young Voltaire, and became his friend. In correspondence from 1735, however, Voltaire was critical of the Jesuit reception of Newton and Locke.[7]