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Jun 19, 2019 · One striking feature of Diderot’s moral thought is his self-described failure to write a work of moral philosophy. While Diderot wanted to write such a work in order to refute La Mettrian immoralism, especially its particularly bracing form of hedonism coupled with its cynical social theory, he ultimately did not succeed in this ambition.
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Biography of Diderot. The arc of Diderot’s long, varied, and...
- Molyneux's Problem
Bibliography. Cassirer, E., 1955, The Philosophy of the...
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Oct 1, 2024 · Denis Diderot (born October 5, 1713, Langres, France—died July 31, 1784, Paris) was a French man of letters and philosopher who, from 1745 to 1772, served as chief editor of the Encyclopédie, one of the principal works of the Age of Enlightenment.
- Robert Niklaus
- The French philosopher and essayist Denis Diderot served as chief editor (1745–72) of the Encyclopédie, and in that role he was one of the originat...
- Diderot was born in 1713, the son of a master cutler. Although tonsured in 1726, he did not enter the church, and he later became an atheist and em...
- Diderot died of coronary thrombosis in 1784 in the Parisian house put at his disposal by Catherine the Great, who had become his patron when he exp...
According to Diderot, without feeling there is a detrimental effect on virtue, and no possibility of creating sublime work. However, since feeling without discipline can be destructive, reason is necessary to control feeling. [1]: 625. At the time Diderot wrote this book he was a deist.
In a dialogue with Diderot, the parasitic nephew of the great Jean-Philippe Rameau defended his debasement and moral corruption, quite shocking to his moralistic interlocutor, as the only means of satisfying the pangs of hunger in a thoroughly corrupt society.
Scholars have also suggested, though never proven definitively, that Diderot contributed during these years to Baron d’Holbach’s Système de la Nature, ou Des Loix du Monde Physique et du Monde Moral first published in 1770.
In 1746, he published his Pensées Philosophiques, a controversial work which argue that virtue or a moral life could be lived without religion or religious belief. He was sent to jail for three months but warned that he could not stop talking about such matters.
A few scholars have analyzed Diderot’s understanding of moral judgment, in particular Lester G. Crocker, who finds that Diderot posits a direct connection between moral judgment and certain universals of human experience. 4 That is,
