PhilosophersDenis Diderot
Denis Diderot
Gather all human knowledge in the Encyclopédie.
Enlightenment · Materialism1713 – 1784 FranceEnlightenment philosopherMaterialistEditor of the EncyclopédieWriter of dialogues
Mon ami, souffle ta bougie pour mieux trouver ton chemin.
My friend, blow out your candle to find your way better. The stranger who gives this advice "is a theologian".
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Si vous voulez que je croie en Dieu, il faut que vous me le fassiez toucher.
If you want me to believe in God, you must make me touch him. Words Diderot gives to the dying blind Saunderson.
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Le scepticisme est donc le premier pas vers la vérité.
Scepticism is thus the first step towards truth.
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Voyez-vous cet œuf ? c’est avec cela qu’on renverse toutes les écoles de théologie et tous les temples de la terre.
Do you see this egg? With it one overturns all the schools of theology and all the temples on earth.
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la tentation est trop proche ; et l’enfer est trop loin
Temptation is too near, and hell too far. Why the fear of hell makes people so little better.
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Misconceptions
False
Diderot was always an atheist.
In 1746, in the Philosophical Thoughts, he defends God's existence from the order of nature: a butterfly's wing, he says, is enough to refute the atheist. He changed his mind in the following years.
False
The Letter on the Blind reports the real last words of the mathematician Saunderson.
Saunderson really existed, but his dialogue with the clergyman Holmes was invented by Diderot, who cites as his source a book by a "William Inchlif" that does not exist.
Nuanced
Diderot wanted to tear religion away from everyone.
He judges it more harmful than useful to society. But in the Conversation, his spokesman refuses to convert the maréchale: religion has made her better, so she should keep it. Everyone thinks in their own way.