Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: "No man has received from nature the right to command others. Liberty is a gift from heaven, and each individual of the same species has the right to enjoy it as soon as he enjoys the use of reason”. (Diderot 1751: 898). In the eighteenth century, in Jacques le Fataliste et son maître, Diderot demonstrates the novel’s quest to highlight the problem of free will and to emphasize the contradiction between determinism and human freedom. While following Spinoza's philosophical system (1677) in which man is compared to a ball that is aware of its path, but is incapable of reacting to the fatal unfolding, or even the determinism of events, Diderot leads the reader to think that fatality applies to every human being, and more generally, that it still influences the evolution of the world. Thus, Diderot depicts the society of his time, which obeyed mainly the delegation of power and authority. However, the philosophical debate between Jacques and his master opens up the paths of thought because both freely express their opinion without being constrained by any authoritarian rule of law. Ultimately, the author wields his power to challenge the form of the novel. Thus, by demystifying the facts, Diderot sets out to describe the problem on the parody of novel writing processes.
Authors: École de l’Air hellénique, Grèce, EFTHIMIADOU Euphrosyne
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W4408873705