Diderot: The Virtue Of A Philosopher
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
What does it mean to be virtuous when you have dismantled the very foundations upon which virtue was built? Carol Blum's incisive study of Denis Diderot — the restless genius behind the French Encyclopédie, radical materialist, and one of the Enlightenment's most provocative minds — confronts precisely this paradox. Set against the turbulent intellectual landscape of 18th-century France, the book chronicles Diderot's lifelong struggle to reconcile his audacious philosophical convictions with the moral ideals he refused to abandon, revealing a man perpetually at war with the contradictions of his own making. Blum argues with compelling authority that Diderot's ethical thought cannot be separated from his biography, weaving together close textual analysis with rich historical context to present a portrait of a thinker whose greatness lay as much in his unresolved tensions as in his achievements. Her prose is precise yet deeply humane, drawing the reader into the psychological and philosophical drama of a man who championed virtue in an age that had lost faith in its traditional sources. For anyone captivated by the Enlightenment, French intellectual history, or the eternal question of how one ought to live, this is an essential and deeply rewarding encounter — one that leaves the reader asking whether Diderot ever truly found the answer.
Author: Carol Blum
Format: Hardback
Published: 1974, Viking Press
Genre: Philosophy
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: Wear and tear with damage
Pages: Tanning and foxing
What does it mean to be virtuous when you have dismantled the very foundations upon which virtue was built? Carol Blum's incisive study of Denis Diderot — the restless genius behind the French Encyclopédie, radical materialist, and one of the Enlightenment's most provocative minds — confronts precisely this paradox. Set against the turbulent intellectual landscape of 18th-century France, the book chronicles Diderot's lifelong struggle to reconcile his audacious philosophical convictions with the moral ideals he refused to abandon, revealing a man perpetually at war with the contradictions of his own making. Blum argues with compelling authority that Diderot's ethical thought cannot be separated from his biography, weaving together close textual analysis with rich historical context to present a portrait of a thinker whose greatness lay as much in his unresolved tensions as in his achievements. Her prose is precise yet deeply humane, drawing the reader into the psychological and philosophical drama of a man who championed virtue in an age that had lost faith in its traditional sources. For anyone captivated by the Enlightenment, French intellectual history, or the eternal question of how one ought to live, this is an essential and deeply rewarding encounter — one that leaves the reader asking whether Diderot ever truly found the answer.