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Materialism and morality : Diderot and Sade in light of the luxury debate
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Gottmann, Felicia (2008) Materialism and morality : Diderot and Sade in light of the luxury debate. Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century, 6 . pp. 217-226. ISSN 0435-2866.
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Official URL: http://www.voltaire.ox.ac.uk/www_vf/svec/svec.ssi
Abstract
Whilst the importance of the eighteenth-century luxury debate as an overarching concern of the Lumières has been recognised, little has been done to discover its influence on moral philosophy and literary texts not directly discussing the issue. Diderot, however, who published on the subject, also portrays the mechanisms of luxury and consumerism in Le Neveu de Rameau. In this text these mechanisms undermine his view of morality, which is rooted in his determinist materialism. The consequences of such a materialism coupled with consumerist ethics as pointed to in the Neveu are depicted in the libertine novels of the marquis de Sade, and pose the question of whether the combination of materialism in the consumerist sense and in the philosophical sense leaves any room for conventional morality.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DC France | ||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Studies on Voltaire and the Eighteenth Century | ||||
Publisher: | Voltaire foundation | ||||
ISSN: | 0435-2866 | ||||
Official Date: | 2008 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 6 | ||||
Number of Pages: | 10 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 217-226 | ||||
Status: | Not Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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