Dramatic Experiments: Life According to Diderot

263 Pages·2013·1.81 MB·English

by  Diderot

DRAMATIC EXPERIMENTS
SUNY series in Contemporary French Thought
David Pettigrew and François Raffoul, editors
DRAMATIC EXPERIMENTS
Life according to Diderot
EYAL PERETZ
STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS
Published by State University of New York Press, Albany © 2013 State University of New York
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission. No part of this book may be stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means including electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.
For information, contact State University of New York Press, Albany, NY
www.sunypress.edu
Production by Eileen Nizer
Marketing by Michael Campochiaro Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Peretz, Eyal,
1968– Dramatic experiments : life according to Diderot / Eyal Peretz.
pages cm. — (Suny series in contemporary French thought) Includes bibliographical references and
index.
ISBN 978-1-4384-4803-9 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Diderot, Denis, 1713–1784. I. Title.
B2017.P47 2013
194—dc23 2012045690
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my brother Assaf

“Whatever I do, I try out something and observe the experiment. Now too I am experimenting … today the
attempt might fail. Next week it may succeed better.”
(Conversation with Joseph Beuys) “Experimental science does not know what its work will produce and
what it will not, but it nonetheless labours without respite. Rationalist philosophy, in contrast, weighs up the
alternatives, pronounces on them, and stops there. It boldly states that ‘light cannot be split’; meanwhile the
experimental philosopher merely listens without rejoinder throughout the centuries and then, suddenly, he
brings out the prism, with the words, ‘light can be split.’ ”
(Diderot, Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature1)
CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction to the “Age of Diderot”
P I D P M —D’ ’ D
ART IDEROT AND THE ROBLEM OF ETAPHYSICS ALEMBERT S REAM
1 Life’s Drama
2 Who Speaks?: Between Dreaming and Waking
3 Two Images of the Image: The Bees and the Spider
P II T S E
ART HREE HORT XPERIMENTS
4 The Identification with the Phantom: The Paradox of the Actor
5 Enlightenment’s Pain: On Diderot’s Dramatic Logic of the Senses: Letter on
the Blind
6 The Drama of Inheritance and the Question of Revolution: A Conversation of
a Father with His Children
Conclusion: Diderot, Rousseau—The Self-Portrait of Modernity
Notes
Index