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11 - Diderot: the enlightened sceptic

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2015

Brian Nelson
Brian Nelson
Affiliation:
Monash University, Victoria
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Summary

Does anyone really know where they're going?

– Diderot, Jacques the Fatalist

Denis Diderot (1713–84) was a supreme man of letters as understood in the eighteenth century: that is to say, a person seriously concerned with every aspect of human activity and critical inquiry. The range of his writings was astonishing. Moreover, he made important and original contributions in almost every field he engaged with: the natural sciences, moral philosophy, art criticism, the nature of theatre and of acting, the art of fiction. Towards the end of his life, he even travelled to St Petersburg to meet Catherine the Great and advise her on the government of Russia. If his work has a unifying theme, it lies in his exploration of the implications – ethical, political and aesthetic – of a materialist world-view. But rather than proposing firm answers, Diderot asks questions; what is most characteristic of him is his philosophical scepticism and its expression in peculiarly dialogic forms. His intellectual interests and his mode of writing make him the most modern of the great figures of the Enlightenment.

The mind of a sceptic

Diderot was best known by his contemporaries as the editor of the famous Encyclopédie, a vast work published between 1751 and 1772 and comprising seventeen folio volumes of text and eleven volumes of plates. The aim of the Encyclopédie was to collate all the knowledge of the day – scientific, philosophical, historical and practical – and to disseminate that knowledge with a view to reducing theological superstition and improving the human lot. It was a monument to Enlightenment values and its project of demystification. Diderot challenged conventional thinking of any kind and encouraged his readers to beware of preconceived ideas. However, he was interested less in the accumulation of knowledge than in its instability and limits. He had a sense of existence as dynamic and constantly changing.

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The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature , pp. 74 - 81
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Alter, Robert, Partial Magic: The Novel as a Self-Conscious Genre (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 1975). (‘Diderot's Jacques: This Is and Is Not a Story’, pp. 57–83.)Google Scholar
Bremner, Geoffrey, Diderot: ‘Jacques le Fataliste’ (London: Grant & Cutler, 1985).Google Scholar
Bremner, GeoffreyOrder and Chance: The Pattern of Diderot's Thought (Cambridge University Press, 1983).Google Scholar
Brink, André, The Novel: Language and Narrative from Cervantes to Calvino (New York University Press, 1998). (‘The Dialogic Pact – Denis Diderot: Jacques the Fatalist and His Master’, pp. 86–103.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fellows, Otis, Diderot, rev. edn (Boston: Twayne, 1989).Google Scholar
Fowler, James (ed.), New Essays on Diderot (Cambridge University Press, 2011).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
France, Peter, Diderot (Oxford University Press, 1982).Google Scholar
Furbank, P. N., Diderot: A Critical Biography (London: Secker and Warburg; New York: Knopf, 1992; Faber & Faber, 2008).Google Scholar
See alsoBradbury, Malcolm's novel ToThe Hermitage (London: Picador, 2000), which, like Jacques the Fatalist, is a reflection on novel-writing and the state of contemporary culture, and recreates Diderot's journey to Russia as a vehicle for this.Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Diderot on Art, ed. and trans. Goodman, John, 2 vols. (New Haven, Conn., and London: Yale University Press, 1995).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Diderot: Political Writings, ed. and trans. Mason, John Hope and Wokler, Robert (Cambridge University Press, 1992).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Diderot's Letters to Sophie Volland: A Selection, ed. and trans. France, Peter (Oxford University Press, 1972).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Jacques the Fatalist, ed. and trans. Coward, David (Oxford University Press, 1999).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Jacques the Fatalist and his Master, ed. and trans. Henry, Michael (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1986).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, The Paradox of Acting, trans. Pollock, Walter Herries (New York: Kessinger Publishing, 2007 [1957]).Google Scholar
Diderot, Denis, Rameau's Nephew and First Satire, ed. Cronk, Nicholas, trans. Mauldon, Margaret (Oxford University Press, 2008).Google Scholar
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  • Diderot: the enlightened sceptic
  • Brian Nelson, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature
  • Online publication: 05 July 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047210.013
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  • Diderot: the enlightened sceptic
  • Brian Nelson, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature
  • Online publication: 05 July 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047210.013
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Diderot: the enlightened sceptic
  • Brian Nelson, Monash University, Victoria
  • Book: The Cambridge Introduction to French Literature
  • Online publication: 05 July 2015
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139047210.013
Available formats
×