Changes

==Philosophy==

==Philosophy==

As a philosopher  Diderot speculated on [[free will]] and held a completely materialistic view of the universe; he suggested all human behavior is determined by hereditary. He therefore warned his fellow philosophers against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress.  He rejected the [[Idea of Progress]]. In his opinion, the aim of explaining the universe through geometry was doomed to fail. Therefore, he founded his philosophy on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox for the ''Encyclopédie.'' There he discreetly but firmly refuted d'Alembert's technical errors and personal positions on probability.  

As a philosopher  Diderot speculated on [[free will]] and held a completely materialistic view of the universe; he suggested all human behavior is determined by hereditary. He therefore warned his fellow philosophers against an overemphasis on mathematics and against the blind optimism that sees in the growth of physical knowledge an automatic social and human progress.  He rejected the [[Idea of Progress]]. In his opinion, the aim of explaining the universe through geometry was doomed to fail. Therefore, he founded his philosophy on experiment and the study of probabilities. He wrote several articles and supplements concerning gambling, mortality rates, and inoculation against smallpox for the ''Encyclopédie.'' There he discreetly but firmly refuted d'Alembert's technical errors and personal positions on probability.

 

He was an atheist, even among his contemporaries, and advocated alongside Voltaire the overthrow of religion.

==Theater and fiction==

==Theater and fiction==

He wrote extensively on the theater;  his understanding of the classical theater is characterized by audience-stage separation, orientation to the universal spectator, and stress on the aesthetics of the theater coming from the actors and the playwright.

He wrote extensively on the theater;  his understanding of the classical theater is characterized by audience-stage separation, orientation to the universal spectator, and stress on the aesthetics of the theater coming from the actors and the playwright.

[[Category:Encyclopedists]]

[[Category:Encyclopedists]]

[[Category:Enlightenment]]

[[Category:Enlightenment]]