Denis Diderot

Denis Diderot was a French philosopher, novelist, playwright and art critic, best known as co-editor, with Jean le Rond d'Alembert, of the Encyclopédie, the great reference work of the French Enlightenment. He moved from deism towards a materialist view of nature and was imprisoned at Vincennes in 1749 after his Letter on the Blind. Many of his boldest writings, including Rameau's Nephew, a dialogue between a philosopher and a gifted, shameless musician, appeared only after his death. He also wrote early criticism of painting and theory of the theatre.

Key ideas

• The Encyclopédie aimed to gather and spread useful knowledge of the arts, sciences and trades, and to encourage critical thinking.
• Nature is matter in constant change; sensitivity and life can arise from its organisation without a designing God.
• Rameau's Nephew stages a clash between conventional morality and a cynical parasite who exposes society's hypocrisy.
• In the Paradox of the Actor he argued that great actors move audiences through cool judgement, not by feeling the emotions they portray.

Major works

• Encyclopédie (editor, 1751–1772)
• Letter on the Blind (1749)
• Rameau's Nephew (written 1761–1774)
• D'Alembert's Dream (written 1769)
• Paradox of the Actor (written 1770–1778)

In the Book corner

• Rameau’s Nephew written c. 1761–1774; first published 1805 (in German) · Intermediate
  A satirical dialogue, written over many years and never published in Diderot's lifetime. One afternoon at the Café de la Régence in…

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