L'inquiétude de la vertu ou le "moi" dans la correspondance de Diderot
Institution:
Toulouse 2Disciplines:
Directors:
Abstract EN:
In his writing, diderot shows concern for moral enlightenment that has as much to do with his personal history as with the philosophical willingness to establish the possibility of ethics detached from any metaphysics. Should la correspondance be an exemplary monument for posterity, the exchange of letters is meant to create dynamics for virtuous behaviour leading to exalted fulfilment. Yet, this impetus is fraught with psychological questioning which makes diderot one of the first interior monologue scholars. Being aware of the limits of introspection and refusing any complacent confession, the writer is looking for signs which, in others, reveal the confused action of hidden forces. In the letters to sophie volland, the action of jealousy and the feeling of impossible transparency give rise to particularly devious truth strategies. Anguish and the desire to know, confronted with the decision to side with exemplariness, produce a complex piece of writing made up of audacity and deviation, the disjointedness of which is a delusion. Such writing, resulting from a dialogue with oneself and others, assuring the integration of disorder into order, opens up poetic possibilities for diderot from which the work benefits.
Abstract FR:
Dans sa correspondance, diderot manifeste un souci d'edification morale qui releve autant de son histoire personnelle que de la volonte philosophique d'etablir la possibilite d'une ethique degagee de toute metaphysique. Si la correspondance doit etre un monument d'exemplarite pour la posterite, l'echange epistolaire est charge de creer la dynamique de pratiques vertueuses conduisant a de hautes realisations. Mais cet elan est traverse par l'interrogation psychologique qui fait de diderot un des premiers penseurs de l'interiorite. Conscient des limites de l'introspection et se refusant a la complaisance de l'aveu, l'epistolier est a l'affut des signes qui, chez les autres, decelent l'action confuse de forces cachees. Dans les lettres a sophie volland, le travail de la jalousie et le sentiment de l'impossible transparence donnent lieu a des strategies de verite particulierement retorses. L'angoisse et le desir de savoir confrontes au parti pris d'exemplarite produisent une ecriture complexe faite d'audaces et de detours et dont le decousu est un leurre. Une telle ecriture resultant du dialogue avec soi et autrui, assurant l'integration du desordre dans l'ordre, a ouvert a diderot des possibilites poetiques dont l'oeuvre beneficie.