Abstract

RATTO, Adrián. Diderot and La Mettrie, Readers of Seneca. Diánoia [online]. 2019, vol.64, n.82, pp.115-130.  Epub May 12, 2020. ISSN 0185-2450.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iifs.18704913e.2019.82.1637.

The aim of this paper is to elucidate the meaning of Diderot’s criticisms of La Mettrie in his Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron, et sur les mœurs et les écrits de Sénèque, which are particularly noteworthy as both philosophers shared a materialistic view of reality and professed atheism. Furthermore, I show how those objections present certain weak points which raise concerns about their scope, and how one of them brings to light a methodological issue that leads to tensions in the text and jeopardizes the objective Diderot had resolved to reach, that is, to defend the image of Seneca before his old and modern detractors.

Keywords : Enlightenment; virtue; hedonism; happiness; Pyrrhonism.

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