Licence bee diderot biography
Denis Diderot
| French writer, educational philosopher and playwright Date of Birth: Country: France |
Denis Diderot: A Biography
Denis Diderot was a French writer, philosopher, and playwright. He was born on October 5, , in Langres, Champagne, into a family of cutlers.
Diderot received his education at the Jesuit College in Langres and likely studied at the Jansenist College d'Arcur in Paris.
He turned away from a career in the church and earned a living through private tutoring and writing articles for journals. He also earned money by composing sermons. During this time, Diderot became an authoritative figure among his intellectual peers, who were also struggling financially.
In , Diderot fell in love with Antoinette (Nanette) Champion, who lived in poverty with her widowed mother.
They decided to marry, and Diderot traveled to Langres to announce their plans and demand his share of the family fortune. However, his father managed to have him imprisoned. After escaping from prison, Diderot returned to Paris, where he secretly married Nanette. Although the couple did not have a harmonious relationship, they remained together until Diderot's death.
In the early s, Diderot was commissioned to translate Shaftesbury's "Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit," a work that was relatively unknown in France at the time.
In the pages of this work, he presented himself as a theist but a year later, in his "Philosophical Thoughts," a refutation of Pascal's "Thoughts," he emerged as a skeptic and freethinker. By this time, Diderot had already established himself as an atheist, materialist, and determinist, primarily known for advocating skepticism.
His anonymously published "Philosophical Thoughts" gained significant success, but also led to public burnings.
Alongside his friend Jean le Rond d'Alembert, Diderot received an invitation to lead a massive new project called the "Encyclopedia, or a Systematic Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts." Initially, the publisher considered the dictionary as a mere translation of Chambers' Encyclopedia ().
However, through Diderot and d'Alembert's efforts, it evolved into a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge in France. During this time, Diderot also published the hedonistic novel "Les Bijoux indiscrets" and the provocative "Letter on the Blind for the Use of Those Who See," leading to his imprisonment in the Vincennes fortress for four months.
After his release, Diderot resumed work on the Encyclopedia, attracting many distinguished figures in science and art, including Voltaire.
Diderot focused on the history of philosophy and crafts. The editors structured the Encyclopedia according to Francis Bacon's "tree of knowledge," with some modifications, making religion a mere branch of philosophy and history a modest section of memory. The editors aimed to combine the alphabetical order of articles, convenient for ordinary readers, with a more philosophical, encyclopedic coverage, employing a complex hierarchical system of cross-references.
Through these cross-references, a religious article, for example, would link to another article contradicting its fundamental theses. This work, consisting of 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of tables, took many years to complete.
Initially supported by the authorities, the Encyclopedia faced powerful opposition, particularly from the Jesuits, and was suspended multiple times by royal edicts.
During the Encyclopedia's publication, Diderot collaborated with Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach, whose house became a hub for translating and disseminating radical and atheistic works.
Diderot met and became acquainted with David Hume, David Garrick, John Wilkes, and Laurence Sterne at dinners hosted by Holbach. Shortly after the publication of the first volume of the Encyclopedia, Diderot published the daring "Letter on the Deaf and Dumb for the Benefit of Those Who Hear," which further challenged his reputation.
As a result, he was imprisoned again, this time in the Vincennes fortress, where he spent about four months.
In , inspired by Carlo Goldoni's play "The True Friend," Diderot wrote the play "Le Fils naturel" (The Natural Son), which closely followed Goldoni's work but infused it with a more philosophical character.
The accompanying treatise of the play outlines the program of a new, reformist theater that breaks away from the conventions of classicism. Although Diderot's critics accused him of plagiarism, the play achieved modest success in France, while his second play, "Le Père de famille" (The Father of the Family), was included in the repertoire of the Comédie-Française.
Licence bee diderot biography death: At the heart of the struggle were the French members of the Society of Jesus. Diderot showed even more secrecy towards his dialogue "Le Neveu de Rameau" Rameau's Nephew , which he possibly wrote without any intention of publishing. Through them, and sociable circulation within the urbane society of Paris, he began to establish his name and reputation as a philosophical author, one who from the start, and ever after, was associated with the most radical and controversial ideas. Diderot replied in kind in his Lettre au R.
These works, in which he expressed his understanding of the theater and the concept of a new, domestic drama, gained considerable resonance, particularly outside of France.
Through Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Diderot became acquainted with German writer Friedrich Melchior Grimm, who published the manuscript journal "Correspondance littéraire," acquainting European monarchs with the cultural life of Paris.
Starting in , Diderot contributed articles to the journal, reviewing the biennial art exhibitions at the Louvre, known as the Salons. While preparing these articles, he visited the studios of renowned French artists. His extensive reviews often took the form of narrative stories or philosophical fantasies, covering a wide range of topics.
Diderot's literary legacy consists of two groups of works.
The first group comprises works published during his lifetime, which are of great historical interest but limited contemporary significance. The second group includes several remarkable prose works, barely known to Diderot's contemporaries but highly relevant to modern readers. The earliest of these works is the novel "La Religieuse" (The Nun), which offers a splendid exploration of the psychology of monastic life and a sharp critique of it.
It is believed that Diderot did not share "La Religieuse" with his friends but eventually published it in the "Correspondance littéraire" towards the end of his life.
Diderot showed even more secrecy towards his dialogue "Le Neveu de Rameau" (Rameau's Nephew), which he possibly wrote without any intention of publishing.
Licence bee diderot biography pdf However, through Diderot and d'Alembert's efforts, it evolved into a comprehensive overview of the state of knowledge in France. Is this Spinozism or not? Tunstall and Caroline Warman ed. Grant me this chimaera.This unusual work, beloved by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, heavily influenced by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, preferred by Karl Marx over any other prose writer, and perceived by Sigmund Freud as a precursor to the Oedipus complex, can be interpreted in various ways. It is, in a sense, a reflection on the nature of genius. The dialogue features a philosopher (resembling Diderot's alter ego) and his acquaintance Jean-François Rameau, the nephew of the great composer Jean-Philippe Rameau.
Jean-François is an unsuccessful composer who has descended into poverty and gained notoriety for his extravagant theories and jokes. To support himself, he lives as a parasite, using his wit to obtain food and shelter while developing a whole science of parasitism. The philosopher finds amusement in Jean-François's company but is also repulsed, acknowledging the difficulty of refuting his arguments.
However, Jean-François himself knows that his constructions are fundamentally flawed. Having been deceived in all his hopes, he tries to find solace in cynicism, only to discover that even cynicism is an unreliable point of reference.
In , Diderot wrote the fantastical, parodically Socratic dialogue on materialism called "Rêve de d'Alembert" (D'Alembert's Dream).
In the dialogue, Diderot and d'Alembert discuss Descartes, with Diderot developing one of his favorite materialistic paradoxes, the idea that all matter is capable of feeling, rendering the concept of a "soul" unnecessary. Diderot's final outstanding literary work, "Jacques le fataliste et son maître" (Jacques the Fatalist), written a year or two later, was inspired by Laurence Sterne's "Tristram Shandy." This picaresque novel, interwoven with digressions and interruptions, focuses on the power struggle between the unnamed Master and his servant Jacques, with Jacques eventually gaining the upper hand.
The relationship between the characters and the transfer of power serve as a fable with multiple interpretations: it explores the nature of literary imagination, the rejection of the narrator's role as a humble servant or accomplice of the reader, the French society and the dependence of the aristocracy on the third estate, and the inevitability of fate and the necessity for everyone to recognize its supreme authority.
In the dialogue "Rêve de d'Alembert," Diderot contemplates the essence of materialism, while in the novel, he explores the omnipotence of determinism.
Licence bee diderot biography It would ensure my eternity in you and with you …. Indeed, he may quite fairly be described as a theorist of embodiment. Diderot learned a great deal from Locke, Montaigne and other paragons of early Western cultural relativism. Leddy, Neven and Avi S.The liveliness and humor of the storytelling resemble Sterne's works, but the paradoxical depth is a distinct feature of Diderot's genius.
In the mids, as work on the Encyclopedia neared completion, Diderot decided to sell his library to provide a dowry for his daughter. His friend and employer Grimm, who was well acquainted with Catherine the Great through the "Correspondance littéraire," suggested that she purchase the library.
Catherine agreed, with the condition that Diderot would remain the library's custodian and serve as her personal librarian. Diderot became an advisor to Catherine II on matters related to painting and played a role in the establishment of the Hermitage Museum. In , he traveled to St. Petersburg, where he was received with special honors.
Licence bee diderot biography youtube He also earned money by composing sermons. He recognizes the brain as a very particular kind of organ, one in need of special attention, and, rather unusually for the period, he seems to call attention to its plasticity in a discussion of memory:. To be sure, his convictions regarding living matter or all of matter inasmuch as it is potentially living and sensing are tied to his admiration for the metaphysics of a single substance composed of an infinite number of modes. Another significant work is the dialogue "Le Neveu de Rameau," which presents various interpretations and serves as a reflection on the nature of genius.During this time, Diderot wrote several treatises for Catherine II, attempting (with little success) to explain the evils of absolutist rule, urge for the emancipation of serfs, and provide notes on a project called "The Instruction."
The journey took a toll on his health, but Diderot continued to devote his energy to literary projects for several more years.
He compiled extensive material for his friend Guillaume Raynal, who wrote "A Philosophical and Political History of the Two Indies," sharply criticizing French colonial policies. Diderot published an extensive essay on Seneca, aiming to justify the philosopher and statesman, who was commonly viewed as a hypocrite. He also left behind a completed major treatise on physiology.
In February , Diderot suffered a stroke, and on July 31 of the same year, he passed away. His wife Nanette prevented attempts to convert him to Christianity. In accordance with his wishes, his daughter Angélique sent a copy of his unpublished manuscripts to Catherine II. Diderot's library, purchased by the empress in , was also transported to St.
Petersburg.
Diderot's literary legacy can be divided into two categories.
Licence bee diderot biography wikipedia His ideas nevertheless pointed in many of the same directions, and they also stem from his wider philosophy, especially his metaphysics, in ways that make his political philosophy a more direct precursor for the radical political philosophy of the next two centuries. The reader of La Promenade du sceptique encounters Pyrrhonians, Spinozists, deists, idealists i. His best works are those that engage in both sides of this dynamic simultaneously in the manner of his literary and dialogic metaphysics and materialist natural philosophy. The Years of Celebrity — 3.The first includes works published during his lifetime, which are historically significant but of limited contemporary relevance. The second comprises several remarkable prose works that were not well-known during Diderot's time but have great resonance for modern readers. The most notable among them is the novel "La Religieuse," which provides a profound exploration of the psychology of monastic life and a scathing critique of it.
Another significant work is the dialogue "Le Neveu de Rameau," which presents various interpretations and serves as a reflection on the nature of genius. Diderot's other works, such as the dialogue "Rêve de d'Alembert" and the novel "Jacques le fataliste," showcase his paradoxical and deep thinking. Through his writings, Diderot established a clear and coherent system of aesthetic views closely tied to his ethical concepts.