Diderot's Selected Writings by Denis Diderot. New York. 1966. Macmillan. Translated from the French by Derek Coltman. Edited by Lester G. Crocker. 331 pages. hardcover. Jacket engraving courtesy of the Bettman Archive. Jacket design/Kenneth R. Deardoff.
DESCRIPTION - This is the most complete selection in English of the witty, profound, and incendiary philosophe whose skeptical mind surveyed the whole range of human concerns, from metaphysics to sex, with elegance and bite. Diderot's writings were and have ever been a prime source for the Age of Reason. His twenty-eight volume Encyclopedia, which both preceded and prepared for the French Revolution, ranks as the greatest single work of the French Enlightenment. The twenty-six selections included here center on his achievements as a thinker - the PENSIES PHILOSOPHIQUES, LETTER ON THE BLIND, LETTER ON THE DEAF AND DUMB, NATURAL RIGHT, ON THE INTERPRETATION OF NATURE, D' ALEMBERT'S DREAM, and others. They also cover his literary productions, including his masterpiece RAMEAU'S NEPHEW and his risque INDISCREET JEWELS, as well as his penetrating criticism of the art and artists of his time - the ESSAY ON PAINTING, and his estimates in the Salons of Chardin, Greuze, Boucher, and others. ‘A transcendent genius which had no equal in his age,' Jean Jacques Rousseau said of Diderot. Presented in totally new translation, this fine edition makes the central work finally available en gros to the English reader.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY - Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 - July 31, 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer. He was a prominent person during the Enlightenment and is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopedie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with Jacques le fataliste et son maître (Jacques the Fatalist and his Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding novels and their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. Diderot is also known as the author of the dialogue, Le Neveu de Rameau (Rameau's Nephew), upon which many articles and sermons about consumer desire have been based. Lester G. Crocker, Distinguished Professor of Romance Languages and dean of the graduate school of Western Reserve University in Cleveland, has selected, edited, and provided an introduction and notes to this volume. Formerly professor and chairman of the department of modern languages at Goucher, his books include LA CORRESPONDANCE DE DIDEROT; TWO DIDEROT STUDIES, ETHICS AND ESTHETICS; AN AGE OF CRISIS, MAN AND WORLD IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY THOUGHT; and NATURE AND CULTURE, ETHICAL THOUGHT IN THE FRENCH ENLIGHTENMENT. A revised edition of his biography of Diderot, THE EMBATTLED PHILOSOPHER, is published by The Free Press division of The Macmillan Company.
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