UCLA

Throughout his oeuvre, Diderot declares that his writing follows the order of his thoughts, quite distinct from the rational order. Pursuing unexpected paths of free associations, Diderot builds his own philosophical system, according to the principle of incongruity. By juxtaposing ideas of art and morality, philosophy and science, and by adopting an active role of agent rather than dispassionate observer, Diderot uncovers new potentialities of interdisciplinary couplings and thereby creates original ideas.

The three works examined in this study, the Salons, Le Neveu de Rameau, and Le Rêve de d'Alembert exemplify how the principle of incongruity functions within the Diderotian system. In the Salons, the confluence between art and morality creates a dynamic interaction of incongruities, which range from the beholder conversing with a painted figure, to his entry into paintings. Not only did this interaction call for the reader's active participation, it also modified the meaning of the beautiful. In his exploration of the relationship between art and morality in Le Neveu de Rameau, Diderot stages a grotesque character endowed with the gift of mimesis. The Nephew uses pantomime as an alternative language to evoke a response from the beholder or reader. The language of gestures, which illustrates the mime's power of imagination leads to an expression of the sublime. This experience brings Diderot to the harmonization of discordant ideas, bringing forth transcendental knowledge. In Le Rêve de d'Alembert, Diderot lets his imagination wander the farthest. His intellectual journey takes the reader from the conjecture that a rock can feel to the creation of a goat man. A mixture of philosophy and science, this text shows Diderot's materialism taken to the extreme. Diderot's imagined manipulations of matter in nature result in the conception of a prototype, which allows him to demonstrate how dead matter can transform into sentient matter. Based on the scientific theory of epigenesis, matter in nature goes through countless transformations in order to achieve this change. The incongruity of Diderot's monstrous creations illustrates the dynamics of his intellectual thought process by which he challenges the status quo.

In all three works, Diderot confronts the firm belief that knowledge can only be acquired through reason. His unrestrained imagination allows him to design experiments and manipulate them in order to transcend the limits of knowledge, and present a vision of the potentialities of nature that lie beyond man's observation.