Walters provides commentary on Diderot's translation of Shaftesbury's An Inquiry Concerning Virtue or Merit. By comparing the translation and notes, Walters demonstrates the evolution of Diderot's thought and artistic skill. Walters discusses the difference between theism and deism, the question of universal order, and compares atheism with free thought. After an analysis of religious fanaticism and social and political abuses, he turns his attention to virtue, as it relates to happiness, objective values, the moral sense, the passions, and self-interest. A final chapter deals with the style of the Essai.
ISBN: | 9780807891124 |
Publication date: | 30th January 1971 |
Author: | Gordon B Walters Jr |
Publisher: | The University of North Carolina Press |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 120 pages |
Series: | North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures |
Genres: |
Philosophical traditions and schools of thought |