This thesis identifies Diderot's criticism of idealism in his novels and stories concerning three aspects: metaphysics, morals and psychology. The conclusions of this study are the following: religions has, in Diderot's opinion, more negative than positive effects; myths and superstitions prevent the search for truth; fatalism cannot be accepted as a valid philosophic theory; traditional morals and its concept of virtue go against human nature and produce moral "idiotisms"; judicial system creates crimes where nature did not; "anti-natural" morals requires humans to adopt utopic ideal attitudes the effect of which is to mentally unbalance them and lead them to debauchery; the morals prescribed by idealism leads to social hypocrisy; human cannot keep irrevocable promises dictated by institutionalised idealism. Diderot, therefore, favours a new ethic based on real human behavior.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.26739 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Kingsbury, Fanny. |
| Contributors | Tichoux, Alain (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | French |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Département de langue et littérature françaises.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001557845, proquestno: MQ29549, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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