180049 SE Denis Diderot's aesthetic writings (2024S)

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) is best known for his editorship of and extensive involvement in the Encyclopédie, an extremely ambitious project that took two decades to complete in the second half of the 18th century and aimed to reflect the state of knowledge of the century and at the same time facilitate better, more enlightened thinking. In addition to countless entries in the Encyclopédie, Diderot's work also includes a series of epistemological, literary and specifically aesthetic writings. However, current demarcations would fail if one were to attempt to pigeonhole these texts.

In his role as the main editor of the Encyclopédie, Diderot worked with several people to compile comprehensive knowledge and pass it on to the readership. The Encyclopédie project emphasized the central role of rationality and empirical observation in the systematic presentation of knowledge. Despite the obvious systematicity and internal coherence of the Encyclopédie, this approach does not suffice to capture the full scope and diversity of Diderot’s intellectual contributions.

A closer look at Diderot’s thoughts on aesthetics reveals the complex and ambiguous world of thought of this atheistic naturalist. For Diderot is not only “creative” in his role as a translator of Shaftesbury, he also reflects on how blind people perceive a world divided into philosophical categories by philosophers who see. His reviews of the Paris salons are among the origins of art criticism.

The seminar will be devoted to this multitude of approaches and will attempt to provide an introduction to Diderot’s exciting and multifaceted philosophy through his aesthetic writings.

Some knowledge of French is desirable, even though our readings will mostly be in German and English.

Students are confronted with central problems of 18th century philosophical aesthetics and learn to develop independent questions and positions on these. The joint preparation for writing a concrete research article is one of the learning objectives of this seminar. Regular engagement with the primary texts using a learning journal kept by all participants provides the basis for habitual writing and the starting point for our weekly discussions.

Method: preparatory reading of selected passages from Diderot’s philosophical writings and secondary literature, weekly discussions in the lecture hall. Introduction to writing an SE paper.

IMPORTANT: The format of the seminar paper for this SE corresponds to the editorial specifications that could apply to a first submission draft for the DIDEROT STUDIES: Length 2,500 words (including abstract and references). Students are encouraged to adhere to the format requirements of the actual scientific journal in order to practise practical work. Seminar papers are accepted in German, English and French.