Diderot's Early Philosophical Works

Abstract

ALL who are interested in the movement of thought which found its expression in the great French Encyclopédie will welcome this translation Of some of Diderot's minor philosophical writings. It can scarcely he said that they show much profundity or definiteness of purpose. They were rather “works of occasion”—short pieces thrown off at short notice—mainly with the purpose of filling the author's purse when money, as happened so often, was running short with him. Nevertheless, they give us a pleasing insight into Diderot's eager and inquiring spirit, and his impatience with the religious bigotry which was the deadly foe of all free and honest, inquiry. The main philosophical point treated in the volume is the relation between mental development and sensuous endowment, a point on which some diversity of opinion is still maintained. His conclusion is that” the state of our organs and our senses has a great influence upon our metaphysics and our morality “; and he shows in some detail in what directions this influence is exerted. To most modern psychologists Diderot's principle will seem so manifestly true as scarcely to admit of discussion. Nevertheless, the principle has been called into question recently by the New Realists, who argue that the human mind is in immediate contact with objective truth. For the confutation of such views Diderot's acute observations upon a blind man and a deaf-mute of his acquaintance are not without value at the present time.