''Philosophical Thoughts'' (french: Pensées philosophiques) is a 1746 book composed by

Denis Diderot Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the '' Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promi ...

; it was his first original work.Bryan Magee. The Story of Philosophy. DK Publishing, Inc., New York: 1998. p. 124

Content

In this book, Diderot argued for a reconciliation of reason with feeling so as to establish harmony. According to Diderot, without feeling there would be a detrimental effect on virtue and no possibility of creating any sublime work. However, since feeling without discipline can be destructive, reason was necessary to rein in feeling. At the time Diderot wrote this book he was a deist. Hence there is a defense of deism in this book, and some arguments against atheism. The book also contains criticism of any kind of self-torture, including self-flagellation. For the 1770 edition of the work, Diderot included some additional material which contained even greater heresies; this included explicit criticism of Christianity, and contempt for theologians.

Reception

In July 1746, the Parlement of Paris condemned the book and ordered it to be burned in public.This enhanced the book's popularity. Since the book was very well written, and since Diderot preferred not to reveal himself as its author, it was thought by both Diderot's friends and enemies that the work was of some established author like

Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his criticism of Christianity—es ...

, La Mettrie, or Condillac.

Notes

References

{{Denis Diderot Denis Diderot