Books - Jean D\'alembert
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Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream (Penguin Classics) by Denis Diderot Penguin Classics (1976) Paperback List Price: Used Price: $0.58  |
 Product Description: One of the key figures of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot was a passionate critic of conventional morality, society and religion. Among his greatest and most well-known works, these two dialogues are dazzling examples of his radical scientific and philosophical beliefs. In Rameau's Nephew, the eccentric and foolish nephew of the great composer Jean-Philippe Rameau meets Diderot by chance, and the two embark on a hilarious consideration of society, music, literature, politics, morality and philosophy. Its companion-piece, D'Alembert's Dream, outlines a material, atheistic view of the universe, expressed through the fevered dreams of Diderot's friend D'Alembert. Unpublished during his lifetime, both of these powerfully controversial works show Diderot to be one of the most advanced thinkers of his age, and serve as fascinating testament to the philosopher's wayward genius. Customer Review: Surrealism in imagination, Darwinism in theory; two rhapsodies for the price of one.: In this incredibly outlandish book, Diderot conceives a dialogue between two men, I, the interrogator and He, the interlocutor. To most readers Diderot appears to be the I in the conversation that took place in Cafe de la Regence. But owing to the writer's eccentric lifestyle, it is palpable he is Rameau's nephew. He, or the nephew, is an insouciant vagrant who happens to spot I one morning while watching a game of chess. He accosts I and critizes the chess players. To He, unless the players are total geniuses they are not worth watching. So the two men exchange dialogue on the disadvantages of being just a mediocre. While I probes the raconteur on his opinions, He exalts himself and defends his bohemian ways. Equally hilarious are the speakers D'Alembert, Bordeu, and Mademoiselle De L'Espinasse in D'Alembert's Dream. After a thorough investigation on metaphysics, D'Alembert goes home and falls into delirious dream. Not knowing what to make of his condition, De L'Espinasse summons Bordeu, the doctor, and asks for prognosis. Ensues is Bordeu's extensive lecture in origin of man, his traits, and senses in humorous way. Using the spider as an example in analyzing the central nervous system and the swarm of bees in probing human adaptability, Diderot disclosed some concepts that were considered taboo. And if only anyone paid attention to him perhaps Darwin did not have to embark the MS Beagle and did all his experiments and observations in his backyard saving him a lot of time and his life from deadly malaria. Customer Review: a member of the family: Rameau's Nephew is one of the the world's best books. It is a supremely entertaining and profound examination of the puzzling capacity of human beings to simultaneously contain both vile selfishness and the ability to self-sacrifice, and why corruption and dishonesty often seem to have the upper hand. Diderot's triumph is that he manages to eschew didacticism for an artistically well-rounded study of one of the greatest characters - whose honest venality calls forth a sympathetic response from all of us - ever to appear in a work of fiction. Taking the philosophical dialogue form as its structure, the book presents an extremely vivid conversation (often sublime, sometimes crude) between 'I', a philosopher presumably based on Diderot himself , and 'He', Rameau, the nephew of a famous musician in France around the middle of the eighteenth-century. The philosopher represents many of the best aspects of the 'enlightenment' - honesty, hard work, patriotism, concern for his fellow-man, while Rameau is precisely the opposite - he is a sponger, a parasite who lives off - when he can - the rich and corrupt members of society, utterly disdaining work (though he has intelligence, some musical gifts and a near-supernatural talent for mimicry and impersonation) unless driven to it by imminent starvation. He throws away his self-respect to toady to the idle bourgeois who keep him in funds, food and clothing, only occasionally letting his true feelings be seen. As the novel begins, Rameau ('one of the weirdest characters in this land of ours where God has not been sparing of them') meets the philosopher in a public garden, where chess is being played, and tells him the sad state of his affairs - he has in an ill-timed moment been cruel to another of his 'patron's' hangers-on, and as a result is now back on the street with no money and no prospects. The conversation shifts to a discussion on the subject of genius, the philosopher arguing artists who have achieved great works can be forgiven dissolute habits and viciousness, while Rameau is mainly interested in the fact that (rare) artistic success usually brings in money, something he truly loves, along with 'good wine...luscious food...a tumble with lovely women...soft beds. Apart from that the rest is vanity'. The topics covered in this book seem endless: music, literature (in one wonderful section Rameau tells how reading the 'moralists' has taught him to lie and deceive more effectively!), virtue, wisdom, fame, reputation, children, education - yet we always return to the woeful amount of corruption in society, for whom Rameau's ideas, claims 'I', 'are so exactly made to the measure of'. On rare occasions the tone is a little too dry, the discourses on current political and musical controversies go on too long, yet these contribute verisimilitude to the outrageously honest remarks by Rameau: 'the rascal by nature only offends now and again, but the evil-looking person offends all the time', and his difficult to believe behaviour, particularly when he, in rapid succession, totally loses himself in imitation - both physically and vocally - of opera and other musical forms, characters of all ages and from all walks of life, in virtually every possible human situation, and all the sounds of nature - coming down from these performances exhausted, to find himself surrounded by people he had been utterly unaware of. The writing is still fresh and innovative today. In his superb introduction, Leonard Tancock (also the translator) states: 'The most profound issues raised by the two men in their discussion are certainly the moral ones. The crucial problem which each of the great eighteenth-century French writers tried to solve in his own way, and which none of them solved quite satisfactorily, is this: in varying degrees each was committed to a materialistic philosophy, and this means determinism. But they were equally committed to an emotional faith in progress, civilization, the social virtues of public spirit, kindness, unselfishness. But the logical end of determinism is cynical opportunism, for how can there be moral responsibility if our lives are predetermined by the laws of chemistry and physics?' Tancock further on adds: 'Finally there is a long discussion of the familiar theme: is happiness possible without virtue? Rameau ingeniously begs the whole question by saying that happiness comes from living according to nature, *one's own nature*. This turns one of the most cherished ideas of some eighteenth-century thinkers upside-down - the notion that nature is right because she is pure, simple, undefiled. Human nature, such people say, is essentially good, and has only been corrupted by evil political forces and social exploitation. Yes, says Rameau, nature is indeed always the best guide, and she counsels free rein for such perfectly natural human traits as sloth, lies, hypocrisy, greed, sensuality. Look at a natural animal or child and deny that if you can'. Though Rameau (who on this subject as on all others is capable of adopting vastly inconsistent positions and opinions) certainly suggests nature counsels absolute selfishness, does this mean Diderot believes one cannot suggest with equal vigour that nature also counsels unselfishness and virtuous action? Certainly, it is the philosopher who, regarding children, says: 'If the little brute were left to himself and kept in his native ignorance, combining the undeveloped mind of a child in the cradle with the violent passions of a man of thirty, he would wring his father's neck and sleep with his mother'. Yet Rameau sounds entirely reasonable as he argues: 'just let the little brute go his own way and told him nothing, he would want to be expensively dressed, eat sumptuously, be popular with the men and loved by the women, in fact to gather round him all the pleasures of life'. These desires are so normal and common we forget for one moment Rameau means to satisfy them not by any hard work, but by flattery, trickery and any other unscrupulous method opportunity presents. Still, the point remains that Diderot is perhaps not as condemning of human nature as Tancock implies. In the passage of the novel in which Rameau blames his 'stars', his 'blood', his 'molecule', his 'nature', his 'heredity' for what he has become, it is possible Diderot the literary artist is - with a great deal of irony - facing the facts about human beings in a way Diderot the philosopher perhaps never could. If so, the message would be: 'Moral' responsibility should more accurately be termed 'natural' responsibility. Human nature is at the same time both essentially good and essentially bad. If we claim that we can remove the bad from humanity - or at least suppress it - in order to maximize the good, instead of recognising that each of us has been randomly allotted fixed quantities of these attributes - then to the degree we believe this we are deceiving ourselves. What the philosopher, and the religious person, with their insistence on abstract notions of human perfectibility (or depravity) will at best merely tolerate, I like to think Diderot is indicating the artist can wholeheartedly - notwithstanding some sadness born of disillusionment - accept and embrace. Customer Review: Not satisfying: The layers of this work contain important, interesting questions. Many of these questions are universal and enduring, but appreciating 'Rameau's Nephew' depends on knowing his contemporaries and some fairly obscure historical information (and I'm not referring to pre-Enlightenment 101, but specific pockets of Paris culture in the late 1700's). The footnotes in this edition give some context, but working through this book was torture. The prose is odd, part philosophy part pedagogy. If you enjoy a Sunday night of Kant or Descartes, then this book will satisfy your appetite for language run amok. If, however, you prefer to have your great questions asked in metaphor, allusion, and story--if you think in pictures and find academic prose too absorbed in its own process to touch human experience, pass on this one. I certainly wouldn't discourage anyone from educating themselves--but I found reading 'Rameau's Nephew' intellectually unsatisfying and aesthetically empty. Unless you're absorbed in Deiderot's time and place, or have specific academic interests, I think one's time is better spent with other thinkers, thinkers who question with depth and complexity without leaving the aethestic landscape barren. Even though Diderot is considered a great figure in French literature, I wasn't touched emotionally or intellectually by 'Rameau's Nephew.' I'm ready for a good dose of Flaubert or Camus. Customer Review: Waiter, theres a Gadfly in my Perrier: If ever there was a cafe novel this is it though it is not really a novel as it consists mainly of dialogue or a dialectic between(perhaps) the two sides of Diderot himself. It is very funny and its all very staged to be that way of course. It makes fun of what passes for reason as this was The Age of Reason and so it has been called a precursor to the romantic movement but still what it most values is cleverness and that seems to fit very well with the age it comes from. Chock full of witty chat, and anti establishment(accepted views) banter in the Candide to Celine tradition of French letters, Rameau's Nephew plays devils advocate to an entire epoch . What is most appealing about this is the earthy idleness which is the center the wandering intelligence(s) roam around. It is a liberating feeling to read a book which challenges a whole societys agenda and self view. It is interesting to see that this is the tradition Celine and Beckett inherited and furthered(well, used) in their own way. A sort of gleeful anti utopian pessimism seems the attitude to adopt if one wants to keep ones dignity in the face of society's sometimes ludicrous efforts to maintain the appearance of civilization . Of course the greatest cafe novel is Man Without Qualities but that is just too long to read at one sitting. Check please, garcon. Customer Review: Not Candide, but still great fun: This is probably Diderot's most widely read work in English translation. There is good reason for it. Rather than strict philosophical treatises, Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream are a series of comic dilogues which serve as vehicles to attack conventional 18th century social mores and theology. In the first book, Rameau, who is an actual historical figure, the nephew of the famed composer, runs into the narrator (Diderot) in a parisian cafe where games of chess are going on around them. Rameau is one of the great comic creations of 18th century French literature. He is a cross between Lear's fool and Dostoevsky's Underground Man. Like the fool, he gets away (until recently) with saying outrageous things to his benefactor's faces, because they tend to regard him as a buffoon. Like the underground man, he is constantly vacillating in terms of his self-image. For the most part he excoriates himself and even seems to revel in the fact that he has brought his misery upon himself. This is in fact a rather ennobling trait, and probably part of the reason that Diderot doesn't dismiss him out of hand. Rameau really doesn't blame others. He accepts resposibility for getting himself kicked out of his rich sponsor's household. He also blames himself for the loss of his attractive young wife. Diderot's descriptions of Rameau's japery is hilarious. Rameau is an accomplished mimic. He performs an entire opera there in the cafe, singing all the parts and providing his own unorthodox instrumental accompaniment. Diderot writes: "What didn't he do? He wept, laughed, sighed, his gaze was tender, soft or furious: a woman swooning with grief, a poor wretch abandoned in the depth of despair, a temple rising into view, birds falling silent at eventide, waters murmuring in a cool, solitary place or tumbling in torrents down the mountainside, a thunderstorm, a hurricane, the shrieks of the dying mingled with the howling of the tempest and the crash of thunder; night with its shadows, darkness and silence, for even silence itself can be depicted in sound. By now he was quite beside himself. Knocked up with fatigue, like a man coming out of a deep sleep or a long trance, he stood there motionless, dazed, astonished, looking about him and trying to recognize his surroundings." Yet, as Diderot the narrator acknowledges, there is method to Rameau's madness. Again like Lear's fool, truth is to be mined beneath the jester's antics. Within the context of the flippant diologue, Diderot addresses many of the philophical concerns that were coming to the fore at the time of the enlightenment. There is a groping towards a definition of evolution that predates Darwin in some respects. There is even a brief discussion of social, vs. gentetic engineering (sustitute "gene: for Diderot's "molecule"). On man's natural state, which was so integral to Rousseu's optimistic philosophy, here is what Diderot has to say: "If the little brute were left to himself and kept in his native ignorance, combining the undeveloped mind with the violent passions of a man of thirty, he would wring his father's neck and sleep with his mother." Remind you of any 20th century father of psychology? D'Alembert's Dream , the companion-piece in this edition, is less entertaining than Rameau's Nephew, but still worth reading. The conceit doesn't work quite as well and the diologue tends to get bogged down at times. For students of the history of philosophy it makes for a lot less dry reading than Hobbes or Descartes however. I was surprised at what a big influence Lucretius must have had on Diderot (something I missed when I first read this work 20 years ago - but then I hadn't read Lucretius "On the Nature of the Universe" at that point). I would definitely recommend reading Leonard Tancock's introduction to both these works, not only for an overview of the subjects that Diderot is tackling, but for the intersting family backgrounds of D'Alembert (who was a revered mathematician and a contributor, along with Diderot and Voltaire to the monumental "Encyclopedie")and Mademoiselle L'Espinasse. 
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Enlightening the World: Encyclopedie, The Book That Changed the Course of History by Philipp Blom Palgrave Macmillan (2005) Hardcover Used Price: $9.00 |
 Product Description: In 1777 several of the world's greatest men gathered together to create a book that would champion rationalism, free thinking, and secularism--the Encyclopédie. Such leading minds as Diderot, Rousseau, and Voltaire conceived of a work that would tear down the social order dominated by the Crown and Church, a brave act at a time when heresy could still be punished by death. During the years it took to produce all twenty-seven volumes, the writers faced exile, jail, and censorship. But when they were done, they had created a book that would provide the foundation for the Enlightenment and change the world forever. Novelist and historian Philipp Blom presents the story behind the sixteen-year struggle to create the Encyclopédie, the men who wrote it, the powerful forces that tried to suppress it, and the tremendous impact it had on the world. Customer Review: Fascinating view of both the personalities and the project they undertook: This is the kind of book that even such dedicated encyclopedistes as Diderot, the Chevalier de Jaucourt and d'Alembert would have found hard to classify. Yes, it's history -- but is it political history? social history? biography? philosophy? In fact, Blom's work is a masterful combination of all these, making it as unique and intriguing as the original Encyclopedie must have seemed to its 18th century readers, confronted as they were with a world where the amount of knowledge available (theoretically) to them grew exponentially by the day. How to keep pace with this? How could they maintain an understanding of the world and their place in it? That, as described by Blom, was one of the catalysts for the creation of the Encyclopedie, but the goals of its contributors and chief architects, especially Denis Diderot, were quite different. Rather than reinforce the existing social order and its underpinnings -- theological dogma as conveyed by the Catholic Church and absolute monarchy, represented in the person of Louis XV -- they embarked on a mission to portray an alternative world, one in which reason prevailed and where an artisan's talents and knowledge were valued as much as those of a pleasure-loving monarch. Often, this could only be accomplished indirectly -- as Blom shows by pointing out how thoughtful readers could fill in the gaps between the lines in the entries on drone bees, who served only as courtiers to the queen bee and didn't work for a living but lived off the efforts of the worker bees. Blom effortlessly weaves together the political and social background against which Diderot and his collaborators toiled for 16 years to assemble what became a 28-volume opus with the details of their lives and experiences, from Diderot's incarceration in the Chateau de Vincennes (to obtain his liberty, he had to forego a career as a professional philosophe -- devastating to him on one level, but something that forced him into his lifelong work on the Encylopedie) to the likely impact of Rousseau's hereditary incontinence problem on his anti-social behavior and ultimate rupture with the cosmopolitan encyclopedistes who had previously been his closest friends. Especially intriguing are the glimpses of other personalities, less familiar to history, such as de Jaucourt and the Baron Holbach. When Diderot embarked on his life work -- reluctantly enough -- he was not a member of any prestigious Academy and, in Blom's words, "was known only to his friends and to the police." Today, he is widely known -- but ironically, to many, it is because of his endless travails on the Encyclopedie, a project that often felt like a millstone around his neck. As for the encyclopedie itself, while it did serve as an intellectual precursor to the Revolutionary-era thinkers who would follow the encyclopedistes, the work itself was as much a mark of the end of the world that Diderot and his companions knew. It would serve to preserve the traditional artisanal crafts that would shortly give way to industrialized processes. Meanwhile, the creation of the book itself -- with even censors tacitly acknowledging the importance of the project to the French economy -- served, as Blom points out, as a sign that the age of capitalism had arrived. "Questions of true religion, of dogma, of respect for authority, even of royal power, could be subjugated to the higher interests of economic wellbeing if this was judged necessary." I can't comment from a scholarly perspective on the nuances of Blom's portrayal of Diderot and his collaborators, but the book is a lively and compelling introduction to the era and the subject that anyone interested in the topics it concerns -- political philosophy, the rise of a civil society, the history of ideas, censorship, etc. -- will find compelling. And Blom does justice to his subject, making each character, from the best known (Rousseau, Voltaire) to the most obscure (Diderot's mysterious mistress, 'Sophie' Vallon) remarkably vivid. There are two few books of this kind - accessible, well-written, thoughtful, well-researched and broad in scope -- and Blom has added yet another to his own personal canon within the genre. (Interestingly, his previous book, To Have and To Hold was a history of collecting objects; this book focuses instead on the collecting but also the dissemination of ideas and concepts and information.) It's a lively history of the times -- you'll almost feel the famous Parisian mud pulling your shoes off as you read about Paris in the middle of the 18th century -- but also a group biography and the history of an endeavor and its legacy. If you find this book intriguing, you might also be interested in another book about literary ventures and misadventures in 18th century France. As Blom mentions throughout this history, many French writers published in Amsterdam to avoid the royal censors -- their works were later smuggled back into Paris inside barrels of salted herring, among other things -- a form of 18th century samizdat. A good survey of the literary underworld of Diderot's era can be found in The Forbidden Best-Sellers of Pre-Revolutionary France. Customer Review: Maybe Illuminating but not Enlightening: Phillip Blom has done a yeoman's job of research on this book. He has spent (by looking at the bibliography) copious amounts of time with both the original version of the "Encyclopedie" as well as correspondence of the Encyclopedists, all in the original French. Where this story is lacking is in his scholarship. For those of us who don't speak French (oh! Mon Dieu!) it would have been nice if more of the French in the book was translated. Yes I am a barbaric American and can't 'parlez-vous', but then does Mr.Blom speak Polish or Russian? If he wanted to enlighten us 'poor souls', instead of treating us like 'peasants', he or his editors would also have explained some of the 'plates' from the original volumes that are sprinkled through the book. From my point of view, you read a book like this to learn about the subject (or metier) and not to be insulted for one's supposed ignorance. If I knew the subject before hand, I would have read Voltaire or Proust and been made to feel totally academically lacking. It would have been interesting to give a background to the 4000 subscribers to this monumental work and what happened to most of the copies in later years. How many are still extent and has anyone thought of computerizing them so that any scholar who wanted could see for themselves what is there? This may sound a little like something written by D'Alembert or some Jesuit, but then who can say that it wasn't? Zeb Kantrowitz Customer Review: Easy Reading Generalizations But Not Bad: This volume is a bit thin as history but an easy read and useful for those who want an easy way to get their head around d'Alembert and Diderot's Encyclopedie project. I like the book but don't consider it "high book" scholarship. With those qualifications, however, I'd recommed for the casual reader. D'Alembert's Preface to the Enclopedie is far "deeper," and provides a better summary. This is a nice book, worth having, but a bit of a coffee table edition, perhaps. Customer Review: Encyclopedie: Philipp Blom is a delightful writer and this is a fascinating and highly entertaining history of the great French Encyclopedie created over the course of 25 turbulent years in the mid-1700s. Despite the title, this is really a book about people, with the encyclopedie as thread to tie the stories together. I have very little background in 18th C European/French history Blom makes it entirely accessible for novice and expert alike (although I suspect many of the stories here are well worn, but new to me, and well told). Probably the greatest compliment is I want to learn more about those involved, probably starting with a biography of Rousseau. This book easily sits besides Simon Winchester's "The Meaning of Everything" and Henry Hitchings "Defining the World". As another reviewer mentioned, anyone with an interest in Wikipedia will find it fascinating. Customer Review: The real importance of the Encyclopedie comes to life in this history of its controversies: What was the real significance of the 'Encyclopedie' by Diderot and d'Alembert? Many will say its size and date of appearance marked it as special: Philipp Blom reveals its significance lie in its blend of politics, honesty and ideas which went against the Church and Crown alike in its effort to provide unbiased truth. Its publication was to underwrite the values of two centuries to come, with philosophers Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and medical scientist Louis de Jaucourt living through arrest, imprisonment, attacks and more for their achievement. The real importance of the Encyclopedie comes to life in this history of its controversies.
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D'Alembert's Principle: A Novel in Three Panels by Andrew Crumey Picador (1998) Hardcover Used Price: $0.71 |
 Product Description: From the author of Pfitz and Music, In a Foreign Language, here is a novel of great intelligence and imagination D'Alembert's Principle is a fascinating historical triptych about memory and reason set in the rich and lavish world of eighteenth-century Europe. In Crumey's novel, a celebrated scientist, D'Alembert, looks back on his life, the splendor of the Paris salons, and his unrequited love for the woman who spent years deceiving him. Meanwhile, an exiled Jacobite dreams of journeying to the planets, and in a prison cell two unlikely captives discuss love, language and fate. Like the movements of an elegant musical suite, these three interlocking stories form an allegory of human knowledge, grand in scope and magnificently entertaining. Deft, teasing, and sometimes deeply moving, this remarkable novel perfectly captures the spirit of a lost age. Customer Review: D'Alembert's Dream: This is Andrew Crumey's third novel, and the second in a loosely related trilogy beginning with Pfitz, and concluding with Mr Mee, a worthy conclusion published in the UK in May 2000. This novel is structured around the structure of Diderot's Encyclopaedia with the focus on Memory, Reason, and Imagination - and while in Pfitz these aspects were dealt with in an abstract way permeating the novel, here there are three distinct parts - each notionally attributed to one of the heads. The most conventional is the first, Memory, a memoir by D'Alembert, with observations by his servants. It deals with D'Alembert's relationship with the other great minds of the time, Diderot and Rousseau, and his troubles in salon culture. The second part is based around a view of the Solar System by Magnus Fergusson. This is an off-kilter way to take various approaches to logic, and philosophy. Each planetary view has a convincing internal logic. Each is completely mad, and very amusing. The final part, Imagination, reintroduces storyteller Pfitz. Each part is laced with Crumey's dry sense of humour, and - as with his other novels - Crumey's mathematical background is put to good use. He has immersed himself in eighteenth century French culture and while in previous novels by Crumey the influence of Calvino, Borges, and Barthelme is most marked here we see some of the philosophical games Diderot uses in Jacques the fatalist and D'Alembert's Dream. While Crumey again demonstrates his erudition, it is necessary to stress that in the midst of the philosophy, and the clever games, Crumey is a witty writer. His novels have a black humour, and occasional farcical scenes running through them. Crumey maintains a very high standard in his fiction, and deserves a broad readership. Those that like Barthelme, Borges, Calvino, or Steve Erickson will find something to like in Crumey. And if you enjoy Crumey and those writers try Drivetime (a novel) or Last Orders (short stories) by James Meek. |
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Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature and Other Philosophical Works (Enlightenment source texts) by Denis Diderot Clinamen Press Ltd. (2000) Hardcover Our Price: $75.00 Used Price: $119.99 |
Product Description:
This anthology includes the first translation into English of Pensees sur l'Interpretation de la Nature, a work attacking the state of science in the mid-eighteenth century - for Diderot there was an inordinate emphasis on the sterile science of mathematics, brought about by the massive influence of Descartes. Diderot argued that mathematics is finally unable to say anything significant about the real world. He maintained that physical experiment is the only way to gain proper knowledge of causes, effects, and nature as a whole. In the course of this work he suggests a number of areas of enquiry in which physical experiment should be usefully be applied. One such is the nature of electricity - he conjectures that electricity is of the same source as magnetism (this was to be borne out by later science). This translation represents a landmark in Diderot studies, the Pensees is an indispensable work by the eighteenth century's most influential thinker. Included in this edition are two complementary philosophical works, The Letter on the Blind and d'Alemberts Dream, forming a trio which allows the reader a holistic appraisal of Diderot's far reaching philosophy. There is an extended introduction by Dr. David Adams, reader in French at Manchester University. He is an acknowledged Diderot expert and has compiled the definitive bibliography of his works for the Voltaire Foundation. |
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Jean D'alembert-Science: Science and the Enlightenment (Classics in the History and Philosophy of Science, 6) by Hankins Informa Healthcare (1990) Paperback List Price: Used Price: $55.00 |
 Product Description: This book examines the origins of d'Alembert's philosophical ideas, and shows how abstract concepts such as force and mass were clarified and assimilated into the structure of classical mechanics. But more than this, the book is a study of the relations between science and philosophy during the Enlightenment, as reflected in the life and work of Jean d'Alembert, one of that period's most prominent spokesmen. By showing the interactions of one philosophe with the scientific, social and philosophical communities of the eighteenth century, Professor Hankins reveals how Enlightenment philosophy borrowed heavily from the methods and goals of science. Customer Review: "Physique de salon": This book furnishes us with an interesting opportunity to highlight an important instance of the fallacy of putting the cart before the horse. Perhaps the cleanest illustration is provided by a discussion of Newton's "marvellous" (p. 183) proof of the law of equal areas. In this "marvellous" proof, "the gravitational force is assumed to consist of [discrete] periodic blows driving the planet towards the sun" (p. 183). Hankins rationalises this assumption as follows: "If Newton believed in the existence of perfectly hard bodies (and he apparently did), it is understandable why he made forces proportional to finite changes in momentum" (p. 183; thus the assumption in the proof of the law of equal areas would be true if gravity was caused by an 'aether' of such bodies). I say that Hankins gets things entirely backwards when he tries to rationalise "marvellous proofs" in terms of philosophical or metaphysical doctrines (such as the existence of perfectly hard bodies). The arrow of justification goes in the opposite direction: we adhere to whatever philosophical or metaphysical principles that will enable us to produce "marvellous proofs." To see that a "marvellous proof" is the horse and metaphysics the cart in the case of d'Alembert, one need only understand the character of the "physique de salon" (p. 97) in which he was engaged. "The salons, the opera, the academies, and the daily round of conversations with his friends were what sustained his interest. ... many letters testify to his ability to charm an audience. [E.g.:] '[D'Alembert's conversation] offers all that can instruct and refresh the mind. He lends himself with as much ease and willingness to whatever topic is most pleasing and brings to it his good-nature and naiveté with an almost inexhaustible source of ideas, anecdotes and curious recollections. ...' The importance of such an endowment should not be underestimated in a society where the bon mot and the witty epigram were frequently the measure on one's worth." (pp. 15-16) If you want to "charm an audience" in this way, the unit of progress is a "bon mot," i.e., a "marvellous proof." Shifting metaphysical assumptions is not a problem; it merely reflects your ability to "lend yourself to whatever topic is most pleasing." But even with this evidence in front of his eyes, poor old Hankins clings to the notion that these Parisian "philosophes" must share a philosophical core. It is amusing to watch Hankins try to get all these horses to follow his cart. For instance we read: "d'Alembert fought consistently to further the cause of philosophie. The battle was real enough and so was d'Alembert's vigorous involvement in it, but the cause for which the philosophes expended so much energy is not so easy to describe. The attempt to define a philosophe or state his creed usually leads first to embarrassment and then to paradox. ... Unfortunately the philosophes were in frequent disagreement, changed their minds, and ... were not at all clear about some of the important ideas they professed. As a result, we can find philosophes who argued both sides of almost any question, and the paradoxes can be multiplied without limit." (pp. 12-13) As we have seen, the "embarrassment" and alleged "paradoxes" is merely the result of looking for the common denominator in the wrong sphere---that of philosophical premises rather than that of "marvellous proofs." To see the same point demonstrated again, consider, if you like, how d'Alembert first got involved in this business of "fermentation of minds" (p. 70), as he himself called it. In his youth, d'Alembert became friends with Diderot, Condillac and Rousseau "in the bohemian café society of Paris" (p. 66). "One wonders how this group of four relatively unknown intellectuals ever came together in a city the size of Paris; or what critical combination of talents carried them all to fame. Again one searches in vain for a common denominator, either social, political, or intellectual, that would obviously have united them in a common cause. The Abbé Condillac, not devout, but certainly not anti-religious, was a philosopher in the traditional sense. He read his predecessors with care and exponded his ideas on the theory of knowledge, scientific method, etc., in well-organized, logical treatises, every one bearing his name on the title page. Diderot usually published clandestinely, saw his books condemned, visited the dungeon at Vincennes, and continued to produce books full of philosophical insight, vigorous prose, dangerous propaganda, and general disorder. Rousseau was unique. A Genevan vagabond, who was probably attracted to Diderot and d'Alembert by a common interest in music, he proved to have the greatest fund of sensibilité and the best romantic prose of any Enlightenment author. These were the men who turned d'Alembert's head to philosophy." (p. 27) I say: "search in vain" no more. It was their appreciation of "marvellous proofs" that united "this little philosophical band" (p. 27).
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ALEMBERT, JEAN LE ROND D' (17171783): An entry from Charles Scribner's Sons' Europe, 1450 to 1789: An Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World by PATRICK, JR. RILEY Charles Scribner's Sons (2004) Digital Our Price: $2.90 |
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This digital document is an article from Europe, 1450 to 1789: An Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 716 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Explores European history from 1450-1789, from the print revolution to the French Revolution. Includes articles written by eminent scholars covering major topics in art, government, and education as well as providing biographical entries on key figures of the period. Also covers topics specific to the era, such as apocalypticism, guilds, food riots, royal mistresses and lovers, the Spanish Inquisition, Utopia and others.
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ALEMBERT, JEAN LE ROND D'(17171783): An entry from Gale's Encyclopedia of Philosophy by John Pappas Gale (2006) Digital Our Price: $5.90 |
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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of Philosophy, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 1790 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. Explores major marketing and advertising campaigns from 1999-2006. Entries profile recent print, radio, television, billboard and Internet campaigns. Each essay discusses the historical context of the campaign, the target market, the competition, marketing strategy, and the outcome.
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D'Alembert and Frederick the Great: A study of their relationship (Philosophical questions series) by Glenn Joseph Van Treese Learned Publications (1974) Unknown Binding Used Price: $15.73 |
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D'Alembert philosophe (Mathesis) (French Edition) by Veronique Le Ru J. Vrin (1994) Paperback Currently unavailable |
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Enlightenment-Age Advances in Dynamics and Celestial Mechanics: An entry from Gale's Science and Its Times by K. Lee Lerner Gale (2000) Digital Our Price: $5.90 |
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This digital document is an article from Science and Its Times, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses. The length of the article is 1707 words. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser. The histories of science, technology, and mathematics merge with the study of humanities and social science in this interdisciplinary reference work. Essays on people, theories, discoveries, and concepts are combined with overviews, bibliographies of primary documents, and chronological elements to offer students a fascinating way to understand the impact of science on the course of human history and how science affects everyday life. Entries represent people and developments throughout the world, from about 2000 B.C. through the end of the twentieth century.
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