The human nature and the existence of God in the Denis Diderot's primary writings

• Grant number: 23/16125-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: June 01, 2024
• End date: May 31, 2025
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Philosophy
• Principal Investigator: Arlenice Almeida da Silva
• Grantee: Sabrina Mara Sossa
• Host Institution: Escola de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (EFLCH). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Guarulhos. Guarulhos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project searches to understand the progression of the moral philosophy of Diderot through the materialism, stem from the analisis of his primary works, specially the The Skeptic's Walk. The research beggins with the background of the religious argument in the title, searching for the recover of the debates between the caracters and identify the current of thought which Denis Diderot is more related to; as a second step, confront the ramifications of the same questions at Philosophical Thoughts in which, gradually, asserts oneself as a laic moral propposal, without theological precepts, highlighting how the Thoughts already indicate the defense of the materialism, located in the further Letter on the Blind (1749). It intends to ilustrate that the primary argument on Diderot is marked by inconstancy and uncertainty, which many times complicates the not anachronistic understanding of the book. That is because, when resuming the philosophical discussion in the mid-18th century about the human nature, the philosopher traces a tortuous path, in which the atheist arguments slowly accomplish a substantial space. Therefore, with an intense reading and analisis of the Diderot´s books above and the titles referred in the bibliography, the research seeks to contribute to the understanding of the first stage of the philosophy of Diderot.