Principes de la philosophie morale
First edition of Diderot's first philosophical work, preserved in its very fine contemporary binding.
156 x 99 mm.
Diderot, Denis. Principles of Moral Philosophy or Essay by Mr. S*** on Merit and Virtue, with Reflections.
Amsterdam[Paris], Z. Chatelain, 1745.
First edition of Diderot's first philosophical work.
Tchémerzine, II, 916; Adams, PY1.
It is embellished with a frontispiece, an illustration, a headpiece, and 2 vignettes by Durand engraved by Fessard.
By translating and rather freely adapting “An Inquiry concerning virtue or merit” by Antony Ashley Cooper, third Earl of Shaftesbury, Diderot chose the text that most represented the author's thought. “I read and reread it: I filled myself with his spirit and, so to speak, closed his book when I took up my pen.”
“Diderot did not simply translate Shaftesbury's book; he was merely inspired by the English work and says so himself in a foreword” (Tchemerzine).
Diderot’s text is preceded by a letter addressed “To my brother,” (the future abbot) in which he writes that he sought in the “Essay” “an antidote intended to restore in myself a weakened temperament.”
Diderot draws the reader’s attention to three essential points: moral virtue that “some pagan philosophers already practiced”; the gratuitousness of virtuous actions relative to the hope of future rewards and the fear of eternal punishments; the superiority of a simple faith in God over revealed religion.
Diderot's personal reflections are printed in smaller letters below the passages of the treatise they aim to clarify or comment on.
“Reading Diderot’s notes, one can see that the problem of an ethics distinct from religious faith is close to his heart. There, paraphrasing several passages of Shaftesbury, he develops praise of honest passions. But above all, the former student of the Jesuits and the Faculty of Theology of the Sorbonne keenly feels the need for a secular morality capable of replacing outdated religious values: hence the sarcasms, which follow one another in his notes, against popular superstitions, the miracles of the deacon of Paris, and the follies of the convulsionaries of Saint-Médard. It is in light of Shaftesbury’s penetrating remarks on collective enthusiasm of crowds, on the fanaticism of zealots, and on common sense that Diderot comments on and interprets the morbid character of superstitious phenomena. A misunderstood devotion only destroys the good inclinations of nature and the very foundations of moral obligation. On the other hand, it is on good morality that all serene and honest belief must be based. The dialogue The Moralists (1709), from which Diderot drew some of his notes, much more completely and maturely weaves together the different philosophical themes scattered through the other writings: the polemic against the selfishness of Hobbes, the idea of the innate sociability of men and their spontaneous goodness. We know that Leibniz thought he found “almost all of his Theodicy before it was even written” in Theocles’s hymn to creative nature. Indeed, the underlying idea of the phenomenology of the passions sketched in the Essay is a metaphysical and pantheistic optimism, similar to that expressed in Pope’s formula, all is well. Here Diderot merely underlines the moral aspect of natural goodness, though in his notes he also hints at a shift that suggests his transition from deism to atheism.” (P. Casini, Dictionnaire de Diderot, pp.177–178).
A very attractive copy of this rare original, of perfect freshness, preserved in its contemporary binding with a particularly decorative spine.
On the title page, it bears the following handwritten ex libris: A. Dauger, 1745.
It is known that a copy of the Essay was presented to Jean-Jacques Rousseau on March 16, 1745.
