WorkDenis Diderot

Philosophical Thoughts

Sixty-odd numbered thoughts on God and belief, published anonymously in 1746 and ordered burned by the Paris parlement within months.

by Denis Diderot50 passages held

French, the original language

Original title: Pensées philosophiques
First published: 1746(aged 33)
Original language: French

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Overview

The Parlement de Paris ordered it burned in July 1746, a few months after it appeared without an author's name — Diderot's first real book, and the one that first marked him to the authorities. It is a string of numbered thoughts, some no longer than a line, weighing belief against unbelief with a freedom that alarmed the censors more than any single claim in it: it defends passion against the moralists who would extinguish it, ridicules the terrors of superstition, and refuses equally the dogmatic atheist and the credulous devout, settling for a religion answerable to reason. Much of it answers Blaise Pascal, whose Pensées had used the same fragmentary form to drive the reader toward faith; Diderot borrowed the form and turned it the other way. Voltaire read it with delight. The book belongs to a Diderot not yet the materialist he became — still willing to argue for a God the evidence of nature might support — which is part of why it reads as an opening move rather than a conclusion. The burning did the usual work of making it wanted, and it circulated more widely than the quiet book of a young writer had any right to. Diderot was not yet thirty, and the state had already decided he was worth watching.

Key concepts

What kind of book is Pensees philosophiques?

A string of about sixty numbered thoughts, some no longer than a line, weighing belief against unbelief. It was Diderot's first real book, published anonymously in 1746 and ordered burned by the Paris parlement within months. Its freedom alarmed the censors more than any single claim: it moves nimbly among positions rather than arguing one thesis, which is much of the form's power and its danger.

How does the book answer Pascal?

By taking his weapon and reversing it. Pascal's Pensees used the fragmentary, numbered form to drive the reader toward faith. Diderot borrows exactly that form and points it the other way, toward doubt and a religion answerable to reason. Much of the book is a direct reply to Pascal, meeting the great apologist on his own ground and turning his method against his conclusion.

What is Diderot's position on religion here?

Deism, not yet atheism. He rejects the dogmatic atheist, who claims to know more than anyone can, and the credulous believer, who swallows miracles and terrors reason should refuse. What is left is a God the order of nature might warrant, believed on evidence rather than authority. This is the young Diderot, before the materialism of his later years, arguing for a faith reason could accept.

What does Diderot mean by the passions?

The strong feelings and desires the moralists of his day wanted subdued. Diderot means to rehabilitate them: passions are not the enemy of virtue but the engine of everything great a person does. He distinguishes their misuse from their power, and argues that a life stripped of them is not purified but impoverished. This defense sits at the book's opening and gives it much of its energy.

Why was the book burned?

Because its freedom frightened the authorities more than any particular heresy. Refusing both devotion and dogmatic atheism, ridiculing superstition, and defending passion, it modeled a mind thinking without deference, which the censors found more dangerous than a single false claim. The Paris parlement condemned it in July 1746, and the burning did the usual work of making it wanted, spreading it well beyond a young writer's reach.

Themes of the book

What this book returns to, gathered into themes and ordered by how much of the text each one occupies.

A God reason might warrant

Between the dogmatic atheist and the credulous devout, is there an honest place to stand? The young Diderot thinks so: a religion answerable to reason, believing only what the evidence of nature supports.

Written before Diderot became the materialist he later was, these numbered thoughts refuse both extremes. The dogmatic atheist claims to know more than anyone can; the credulous believer swallows terrors and miracles reason should reject. Diderot settles in between, for a God the order of nature might warrant and a faith that answers to evidence rather than authority. He ridicules the fears superstition trades on and borrows Pascal's fragmentary form only to point it the other way, toward doubt rather than submission. It is a deist's book and an opening move, the position of a man not yet thirty whom the state had already decided to watch.

deism
theism
natural theology
skepticism
atheism
religion
superstition
epistemology
miracles

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In defense of the passions

Should a good life mean mastering the passions until they fall silent? Diderot says the opposite: the moralists who would extinguish passion would extinguish what makes greatness, and life itself, possible.

The book opens by turning on the moralists. It is fashionable, Diderot writes, to preach against the passions, to blame them for every misery and demand they be subdued; but sever a person from their passions and you get not virtue, only a dull and diminished creature. Strong feeling, rightly aimed, is the source of everything remarkable a person does. This defense, startling in a book otherwise about belief, is part of why Voltaire read it with delight, and it marks a Diderot already unwilling to buy tranquility at the price of vitality, well before his materialism arrived.

ethics
virtue
truth
reason

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Within this work

passages held: 50
distinct concepts: 130
by passages held, corpus-wide: #654

What this book thinks together

The wheel takes this book’s leading concepts and shows how often they come up together. The wider the band between two, the more of its passages speak of both. Among them, most often together: “epistemology” and “skepticism”.

Concept co-occurrence, strongest first 7 concepts, joined by 14 pairings. 49 pairings reach beyond these concepts and are not drawn.
Concept	Paired concept	Shared passages
epistemology	skepticism	4
atheism	skepticism	3
epistemology	reason	3
miracles	religious authority	3
atheism	deism	2
atheism	epistemology	2
deism	skepticism	2
epistemology	miracles	2
miracles	reason	2
reason	skepticism	2
atheism	religious authority	1
epistemology	religious authority	1
miracles	skepticism	1
religious authority	skepticism	1

Works held

The author's work in order, this book marked in place. Your-language title first, the original beneath it where the two differ; side chips show which full texts are held.

1746 Philosophical Thoughts (Pensées philosophiques) you are here FR
1770 On the Sufficiency of Natural Religion (De la suffisance de la religion naturelle)
A companion to the Philosophical Thoughts from Diderot's deist years, disowned by silence as his materialism took hold; it reached print only in 1770, and only under a dead man's name.
FR
1773 Conversation of a Father with His Children (Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants)
A semi-autobiographical dialogue rather than a treatise, staging Diderot's own family in Langres to weigh law against conscience; one of the moral fictions he sent out through Grimm's private newsletter rather than into print.
FR
1796 Supplement to Bougainville's Voyage (Supplément au voyage de Bougainville)
One of the philosophical dialogues Diderot wrote late and kept for private circulation, appearing only after his death; here the frame is a real Pacific voyage, and the question is whether Europe's morals are nature's or its own.
FR
1805 Rameau's Nephew (Le neveu de Rameau)
A satirical dialogue between a level-headed philosopher and a brilliant scoundrel — the most unsettling and least classifiable thing Diderot wrote, and the one he kept out of print entirely.
FR

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