Philosophical Thoughts
Philosophical Thoughts is a 1746 book composed by Denis Diderot; it was his first original work.
In the book, Diderot argued that both reason and feeling were required to establish harmony. He defended deism and criticized both atheism and Christianity. He expressed his contempt for theologians, and criticized all forms of self-torture.
Content
In this book, Diderot argued for a reconciliation of reason with feeling so as to establish harmony. According to Diderot, without feeling there would be a detrimental effect on virtue and no possibility of creating any sublime work. However, since feeling without discipline can be destructive, reason was necessary to rein in feeling.At the time Diderot wrote this book he was a deist. Hence there is a defense of deism in this book, and some arguments against atheism. The book also contains criticism of any kind of self-torture, including self-flagellation. For the 1770 edition of the work, Diderot included some additional material which contained even greater heresies; this included explicit criticism of Christianity, and contempt for theologians.