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Denis Diderot (1713--1784)

Last update: 30 Jul 2026 14:55
First version: 3 October 1994 (or thereabouts); amplified and cleaned up link-rot, 29 July 2026

One of the brighter lights of the Enlightenment.

Diderot is most important as one of the main people responsible for the Encyclopedie, but that's not why I am interested in him. Rather, I am drawn to his lesser but more original works. D'Alembert's Dream, in particular, is a strange and fascinating document, which is the oldest prophecy I have found of what one might call "the coming age of biotechnology", that our scientific knowledge will soon allow us to manipulate living organisms directly. This is of course now true...

I cannot recommend his fiction. I had to read Jacques the Fatalist in school and hated it. As for The Indiscreet Jewels and The Nun, I can only say that I am evidently not the correct audience for 18th century political porn. There is, however, something very curious about the fact that a leading and prolific public intellectual, with real accomplishments, also wrote political porn. (Though, who knows, maybe we'll discover posthumously that some of our leading lights had curious accounts on An Archive of Our Own.) (Actually, on re-consideration: Gore Vidal.)

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