Diderot - Dialogues & Minor Works
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1edwinbcn
Supplément au voyage de Bougainville
Finished reading: 5 October 2013
The French were not the first to circumvent the globe, nor were they the first to discover Tahiti, in the eighteenth century referred to as Taïti or Otaïti. However, in April 1768, the French admiral and explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, a contemporary of James Cook, landed on Tahiti and made contact with the islanders. The sighting of the islands and the adventures therein are described in Bougainville's journal Voyage autour du monde (English: A Voyage Around the World). Bougainville's is a very detailed and dry report of all facts and details pertaining to his voyage of discovery.
Bougainville describes Tahiti as a new Garden of Eden, where the people are uncorrupted by civilization. Free of shame, the inhabitants had a culture of free sexuality, without restraints imposed by culture. Bougainville 400 sailors did not only suffer from scurvy, which was quickly cured on Tahiti, they also found fast relief from their six months of deprivation of women. One of his men, was jumped at by a group of Tahitians who tore of "his / her" clothes. While captain and crew were deceived for more than a year, the Tahitians immediately saw through a young woman's deception: she had served aboard the ship dressed up as a young man. After ten days, Bougainville left Tahiti, taking a man from Tahiti with him. This man, named Aotourou, became the sight of the Parisian salons, upon their return to France.
Less than a year later, in 1772, Denis Diderot published his Supplément au voyage de Bougainville (English: Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville, or dialogue between A and B on the drawback to binding moral ideas to certain physical actions which bear none).
The Supplément au voyage de Bougainville is structured as dialogues within a dialogue. The dialogue of two Frenchmen, simply A & B, is the framework for shorter dialogues between a cleric and a native from Tahiti. The first part discusses a number of facts from Bougainville's journal, as well as a characterization of the Admiral. These facts come straight from the journal. It is possible that the dialogues between the cleric and Orou, the Tahitian, are reported dialogues which Diderot may have observed in Paris. The dialogues focus on the free and natural state of the people in Tahiti versus the corrupted and unnatural state of civilized man, particularly the clerics. In the context of the dialogues, Diderot also questions the right of colonization, suggesting how odd Europeans would find it if any foreign power would arrive on the coast of France and claim the territory in the name of an overseas ruler.
The significance of Supplément au voyage de Bougainville lies in the fact that it was written at that particular time in France, known now as the Enlightenment. Diderot and Rousseau had been friends for many years, although later Diderot cursed Rousseau for stealing his ideas. Whether they arrived at their ideas together or separately, Diderot's Supplément is one of the first book of that period to focus on the natural state of man.
Supplément au voyage de Bougainville also laid the foundation for the myth of the earthly paradise in the South Seas, which would attracts scores of writers, painters and others to Tahiti.
Finished reading: 5 October 2013
The French were not the first to circumvent the globe, nor were they the first to discover Tahiti, in the eighteenth century referred to as Taïti or Otaïti. However, in April 1768, the French admiral and explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, a contemporary of James Cook, landed on Tahiti and made contact with the islanders. The sighting of the islands and the adventures therein are described in Bougainville's journal Voyage autour du monde (English: A Voyage Around the World). Bougainville's is a very detailed and dry report of all facts and details pertaining to his voyage of discovery.
Bougainville describes Tahiti as a new Garden of Eden, where the people are uncorrupted by civilization. Free of shame, the inhabitants had a culture of free sexuality, without restraints imposed by culture. Bougainville 400 sailors did not only suffer from scurvy, which was quickly cured on Tahiti, they also found fast relief from their six months of deprivation of women. One of his men, was jumped at by a group of Tahitians who tore of "his / her" clothes. While captain and crew were deceived for more than a year, the Tahitians immediately saw through a young woman's deception: she had served aboard the ship dressed up as a young man. After ten days, Bougainville left Tahiti, taking a man from Tahiti with him. This man, named Aotourou, became the sight of the Parisian salons, upon their return to France.
Less than a year later, in 1772, Denis Diderot published his Supplément au voyage de Bougainville (English: Addendum to the Journey of Bougainville, or dialogue between A and B on the drawback to binding moral ideas to certain physical actions which bear none).
The Supplément au voyage de Bougainville is structured as dialogues within a dialogue. The dialogue of two Frenchmen, simply A & B, is the framework for shorter dialogues between a cleric and a native from Tahiti. The first part discusses a number of facts from Bougainville's journal, as well as a characterization of the Admiral. These facts come straight from the journal. It is possible that the dialogues between the cleric and Orou, the Tahitian, are reported dialogues which Diderot may have observed in Paris. The dialogues focus on the free and natural state of the people in Tahiti versus the corrupted and unnatural state of civilized man, particularly the clerics. In the context of the dialogues, Diderot also questions the right of colonization, suggesting how odd Europeans would find it if any foreign power would arrive on the coast of France and claim the territory in the name of an overseas ruler.
The significance of Supplément au voyage de Bougainville lies in the fact that it was written at that particular time in France, known now as the Enlightenment. Diderot and Rousseau had been friends for many years, although later Diderot cursed Rousseau for stealing his ideas. Whether they arrived at their ideas together or separately, Diderot's Supplément is one of the first book of that period to focus on the natural state of man.
Supplément au voyage de Bougainville also laid the foundation for the myth of the earthly paradise in the South Seas, which would attracts scores of writers, painters and others to Tahiti.
2baswood
Excellent review of the Diderot which can be found in an English translation Rameau's Nephew and other works translations by Jacques Barzun and Ralph H Bowen.
3StevenTX
Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream by Denis Diderot
La nevue de Rameau written circa 1761, published posthumously 1805
Le rêve de d'Alembert first published 1769
English translation by Leonard Tancock 1966
These two philosophical dialogues by Diderot may originally have been written for the author's amusement with no publication in mind. Both of them use the philosopher's personal friends as characters, and they both promote atheism and an open-minded attitude towards sexuality--dangerous ideas in the 18th century.
In Rameau's Nephew the debate is between an unnamed philosopher (not necessarily Diderot himself) and Jean-François Rameau, the nephew of the famous composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The core of the debate is the question of how one should live if one does not believe in God or in any external system of morality. The philosopher's answer is that one should be virtuous, industrious, patriotic and generous. Rameau's response is to proclaim a philosophical life "devilishly dull," and to assert that you should simply "drink good wine, blow yourself out with luscious food, have a tumble with lovely women, lie on soft beds. Apart from that the rest is vanity." Rameau goes so far as to say that he bears no responsibility for the support or oversight of his offspring, and he feels no remorse that he lives at the expense of others by begging, borrowing and trickery.
There is also much discussion of music and other arts, with many references to contemporary composers and performers. It comes out that Rameau is prodigiously talented and would be considered a man of genius if he chose to put his talents to work. The two debate whether a person so gifted has an obligation or not to develop and display his gifts.
D'Alembert's Dream is a dialogue in three parts featuring four different characters, one of whom is Diderot himself. Again atheism is central to the discussion, only this time in a scientific vein. The basic question is how to explain the existence of life and human consciousness if there is no such thing as a Creator or a soul. Diderot's approach is first to remove the absolute distinctions between human and animal--as well as between animal, vegetable and mineral--by showing that the inanimate atoms in the soil are absorbed into plants, then assimilated into humans when we eat fruits and vegetables. We are the same material as a block of marble, only with a higher degree of organization. Diderot goes on to give mechanical explanations for the senses, thought, memory, dreams and imagination. He even sets forth a theory of evolution, suggesting that "the imperceptible worm wriggling in the mire is probably on its way to becoming a large animal," and theorizing that in the distant future humans may evolve into huge, disembodied brains.
Diderot's writing is lively and irreverent, and these two dialogues show us the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of the Enlightenment at work.
La nevue de Rameau written circa 1761, published posthumously 1805
Le rêve de d'Alembert first published 1769
English translation by Leonard Tancock 1966
These two philosophical dialogues by Diderot may originally have been written for the author's amusement with no publication in mind. Both of them use the philosopher's personal friends as characters, and they both promote atheism and an open-minded attitude towards sexuality--dangerous ideas in the 18th century.
In Rameau's Nephew the debate is between an unnamed philosopher (not necessarily Diderot himself) and Jean-François Rameau, the nephew of the famous composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. The core of the debate is the question of how one should live if one does not believe in God or in any external system of morality. The philosopher's answer is that one should be virtuous, industrious, patriotic and generous. Rameau's response is to proclaim a philosophical life "devilishly dull," and to assert that you should simply "drink good wine, blow yourself out with luscious food, have a tumble with lovely women, lie on soft beds. Apart from that the rest is vanity." Rameau goes so far as to say that he bears no responsibility for the support or oversight of his offspring, and he feels no remorse that he lives at the expense of others by begging, borrowing and trickery.
There is also much discussion of music and other arts, with many references to contemporary composers and performers. It comes out that Rameau is prodigiously talented and would be considered a man of genius if he chose to put his talents to work. The two debate whether a person so gifted has an obligation or not to develop and display his gifts.
D'Alembert's Dream is a dialogue in three parts featuring four different characters, one of whom is Diderot himself. Again atheism is central to the discussion, only this time in a scientific vein. The basic question is how to explain the existence of life and human consciousness if there is no such thing as a Creator or a soul. Diderot's approach is first to remove the absolute distinctions between human and animal--as well as between animal, vegetable and mineral--by showing that the inanimate atoms in the soil are absorbed into plants, then assimilated into humans when we eat fruits and vegetables. We are the same material as a block of marble, only with a higher degree of organization. Diderot goes on to give mechanical explanations for the senses, thought, memory, dreams and imagination. He even sets forth a theory of evolution, suggesting that "the imperceptible worm wriggling in the mire is probably on its way to becoming a large animal," and theorizing that in the distant future humans may evolve into huge, disembodied brains.
Diderot's writing is lively and irreverent, and these two dialogues show us the mind of one of the greatest geniuses of the Enlightenment at work.
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