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Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was one of the most significant figures of the French enlightenment. His political writings cover the period from the first volume of the Encyclopedie (1751), of which he was principal editor, to the third edition of Raynal's Histoire des Deux Indes (1780), one of the most widely read books of the pre-revolutionary period. This volume contains the most important of Diderot's articles for the Encyclopedie, a substantial number of his contributions to the Histoire, the complete texts of his Supplement au Voyage de Bougainville, one of his most visionary works, and his Observations sur le Nakaz, a precise and detailed political work translated here into English for the first time. The editors' introduction sets these works in their context and shows the underlying coherence of Diderot's thought. A chronology of events and a bibliography are included as further aids to the reader.
I t is only relatively recently that serious attempts have been made to rescue Diderot's political writings from obscurity and neglect, and ascribe to the ideas expressed therein their due place in the panoply of his intellectual and artistic achievements. This has been largely made possible by the transference of the Fonds Vandeul from Diderot's descendants to the Bibliotheque Nationale in 1954. This important collection of manuscripts and papers, to which scholars have previously had very inadequate access, contains the bulk of the political writings, most of which had either never been published, or were only obtainable in badly prepared or rare editions. In recent years, however, excellent critical editions of the most impor tant political texts have appeared; the Textes Politiques edited by Yves Benot, and the Oeuvres Politiques and the Memoires pour Catherine II edited by Paul Verniere are all notable contributions. Meanwhile Jacques Proust has written a major thesis on Diderot et l'Encyclopedie which con tains a detailed study of Diderot's political ideas during the years he de voted to the construction of that great intellectual monument. Most re cently Yves Benot has published a general work with an important study of Diderot's hostility to European colonial policies, Diderot, de l'atheisme a l'anticolonialisme. Furthermore, Diderot's contributions to the three editions of Raynal's Histoire des deux Indes have been identified with virtual certainty by Michele Duchet and Hans Wolpe, thereby opening up a further valuable source for his political ideas.
This anthology of 81 articles is the first attempt to translate and collect the most significant political writing from the Encyclopédie (1751-1765). It includes every aspect of the ideas, practices, and institutions of Western political life.
Best Book of the Year – Kirkus Reviews A spirited biography of the prophetic and sympathetic philosopher who helped build the foundations of the modern world. Denis Diderot is often associated with the decades-long battle to bring the world’s first comprehensive Encyclopédie into existence. But his most daring writing took place in the shadows. Thrown into prison for his atheism in 1749, Diderot decided to reserve his best books for posterity–for us, in fact. In the astonishing cache of unpublished writings left behind after his death, Diderot challenged virtually all of his century's accepted truths, from the sanctity of monarchy, to the racial justification of the slave trade, to the norms of human sexuality. One of Diderot’s most attentive readers during his lifetime was Catherine the Great, who not only supported him financially, but invited him to St. Petersburg to talk about the possibility of democratizing the Russian empire. In this thematically organized biography, Andrew S. Curran vividly describes Diderot’s tormented relationship with Rousseau, his curious correspondence with Voltaire, his passionate affairs, and his often iconoclastic stands on art, theater, morality, politics, and religion. But what this book brings out most brilliantly is how the writer's personal turmoil was an essential part of his genius and his ability to flout taboos, dogma, and convention.
A new translation of Denis Diderot's 1774 Political Principles of Sovereigns from the original French manuscript into American English. This edition contains an afterword by the translator on Diderot's philosophic legacy, a timeline of his works and life, and a glossary of philosophic terminology utilized in his works. In "Political Principles of Sovereigns," Diderot examines the role of rulers and the principles of governance. He criticizes despotic and oppressive regimes, advocating for rulers to prioritize the well-being and happiness of their subjects. Diderot's treatise influenced discussions on political philosophy and the principles of sovereignty. While there are no specific comments from other philosophers or intellectuals on this work, "Political Principles of Sovereigns" showcases Diderot's political ideals and his belief in the importance of just and benevolent governance. The work emphasizes the responsibility of rulers to prioritize the welfare of their citizens and lays the groundwork for later political thinkers who explored similar themes.
Presenting a selection of Voltaire's most interesting and controversial texts, many not previously translated into English, this edition of political writings includes the nature and legitimacy of political power, law and the social order, and the growing disorder in the French economy.
This anthology of 81 articles is the first attempt to translate and collect the most significant political writing from the Encyclopédie (1751-1765). It includes every aspect of the ideas, practices, and institutions of Western political life.
Using the writings of the critical theorists of the Frankfurt School as a framework, this book uncovers the tensions and contradictions associated with the rise of capitalism as manifested in the writings of Rousseau and Diderot.
A dual biography crafted around the famous encounter between the French philosopher who wrote about power and the Russian empress who wielded it with great aplomb. In October 1773, after a grueling trek from Paris, the aged and ailing Denis Diderot stumbled from a carriage in wintery St. Petersburg. The century’s most subversive thinker, Diderot arrived as the guest of its most ambitious and admired ruler, Empress Catherine of Russia. What followed was unprecedented: more than forty private meetings, stretching over nearly four months, between these two extraordinary figures. Diderot had come from Paris in order to guide—or so he thought—the woman who had become the continent’s last great hope for an enlightened ruler. But as it soon became clear, Catherine had a very different understanding not just of her role but of his as well. Philosophers, she claimed, had the luxury of writing on unfeeling paper. Rulers had the task of writing on human skin, sensitive to the slightest touch. Diderot and Catherine’s series of meetings, held in her private chambers at the Hermitage, captured the imagination of their contemporaries. While heads of state like Frederick of Prussia feared the consequences of these conversations, intellectuals like Voltaire hoped they would further the goals of the Enlightenment. In Catherine & Diderot, Robert Zaretsky traces the lives of these two remarkable figures, inviting us to reflect on the fraught relationship between politics and philosophy, and between a man of thought and a woman of action.
Dena Goodman here offers a fresh explanation of how critical theory broke out of the mold of an earlier tradition of discourse—the mirror for princes genre—and shaped its own course in the eighteenth century. Criticism in Action provides a historical analysis of French Enlightenment texts as actions and as the focus of critical activity in which writers and their potential readers participate. Goodman approaches texts as forces that shape the thinking and acting of the individuals engaged in the act of reading and presents new interpretations of major Enlightenment texts by Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Diderot.