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Is he good? Is he evil?

出版	Marchen Press
主題	Philosophy / Metaphysics
ISBN	36893864039783689386405
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=T9xYEQAAQBAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBook	SAMPLE

註釋Is He Good? Is He Evil? (Est-il bon ? Est-il méchant ?) was written in 1781, near the end of Diderot’s life, and remains one of his most compact but philosophically intricate dialogues. The text was not published until after his death, and like many of his late works, it takes the form of a speculative conversation—this time between unnamed speakers debating the moral character of a third person. Ostensibly a reflection on individual ethics, the dialogue functions as a vehicle for Diderot’s more radical meditations on moral relativism, determinism, and the instability of virtue as a philosophical category. Denis Diderot's final dramatic work, Is He Good? Is He Evil? (Est-il bon? Est-il méchant?), completed in 1781 but unpublished until after his death, stands as the culmination of his theatrical experimentation and moral philosophy—a play that deliberately challenges conventional ethical categorizations while simultaneously revolutionizing dramatic form through techniques that anticipate modernist theater by more than a century. Unlike the more didactic "serious comedy" (comédie sérieuse) that dominated French theater of the period, Diderot constructs a work that systematically undermines binary moral judgments through its central character Hardouin, a playwright and social manipulator widely recognized as Diderot's semi-autobiographical creation. The play's narrative structure, composed of interwoven episodes rather than linear plot development, follows Hardouin as he orchestrates complex schemes ostensibly intended to help his acquaintances while simultaneously satisfying his own psychological needs and artistic impulses. This modern edition contains a new Epilogue by the translator, a glossary of Philosophical Terms used by Diderot, a chronology of his core life and works, and a summary index of all of Diderot's works. With a clean, modern translation of Diderot's Enlightenment-era French, this edition brings Diderot's thoughts directly into the modern intellectual sphere, tracing the intellectual forces which swept along Diderot and impacted today's secular world. Written after decades of philosophical development, Is He Good? Is He Evil? contains Diderot’s matured skepticism about the existence of moral essences. Rather than affirming a stable notion of goodness or vice, the dialogue probes how judgments of character are conditioned by social role, historical circumstance, and perception. The structure is dialectical, yet without resolution; no speaker fully triumphs, and no ethical theory emerges unscathed. The man under discussion is presented as both generous and cruel, just and arbitrary—his actions interpretable from multiple, even contradictory, angles. Diderot here questions whether such binary moral classifications retain coherence once psychology, social pressure, and contingent motive are introduced. This moral complexity marks a significant evolution from Diderot’s earlier dramatic theory and practice. In works like Le Fils naturel (1757), he aimed to present clear examples of virtue struggling against adversity, hoping to elicit moral tears and instruct the audience. By 1781, influenced perhaps by the profound explorations of determinism and morality in Jacques le fataliste or the challenging portrait of social parasitism in Le Neveu de Rameau, Diderot seems less confident in simple didacticism. Est-il bon? Est-il méchant? suggests a world where virtue is not only difficult but perhaps ill-defined, where social interactions necessitate compromises that blur ethical lines. It implies a shift towards observing "what is" rather than prescribing "what ought to be."