Is it necessary to civilize man or is it necessary to leave him abandoned to his instinct?

Reading of Denis Diderot (French, 1713-1784).Against lovers of order.

Diderot, was a great unknown among his contemporaries, considered a citizen outside of social conventions, both literature and philosophy reject him, without any granting him a worthy place, he had to wait until Goethe and Hegel (who used him in the Phenomenology of Spirit) for its dissemination. The brief reading that we rescue today may say something more about this author, about the civilization of man who lives in society.

 

Against lovers of order.

 

A. —Is it necessary to civilize man or is it necessary to leave him abandoned to his instinct?

 

B. —Should I answer precisely?

 

B. —If you propose to be his tyrant, civilize him; poison it as best you can with a moral contrary to nature; put obstacles of all kinds; intercept their movements with all kinds of obstacles; tie him to ghosts that terrify him; eternalize the war inside the cave and that the natural man is always chained at the feet of the moral man. Do you want me to be free and happy? Do not meddle in his business: enough unforeseen incidents will take care to lead him to light and depravity; and rest assured forever that it was not for you but for themselves that those wise legislators amassed and manipulated you as you were. I appeal to all political, civil and religious institutions: examine them deeply; Either I am very wrong or you will see the human species fold, century after century, under the yoke that a handful of rogues had promised to impose on it. Be wary of those who want to restore order. Ordering is always becoming the owner of others by bothering them.

 

Denis Diderot (French, 1713-1784).Against Lovers of Order.