Positive and comprehensive studies in the relationships between Diderot's political thought and materialism

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K02078
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: History of thought
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: OHJI Kenta 京都大学, 人文科学研究所, 准教授 (90402809)
• Research Collaborator: Goggi Gianluigi ピサ大学, 名誉教授
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 唯物論 / 政治的自由主義 / 政治経済学 / (反)フィジオクラシー / 所有権 / 労働 / 文明化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Diderot’s Political Thought is highly circumstantial, but this character itself derived from his materialist conviction, which grasps the political body in the Natural History process, and seeks the best way of its preservation in each circumstance; his interest in the political economy also rooted in his physiological and naturalist anthropology. Though, Diderot rejected the utilitarian maximization of the political-and-economical order like Quesnay; for the sake of the autonomous play of sexual desires, he rather defended the autonomy of the social sphere against political and hierarchical power relations. His ideal of “civilization” represents nothing but a political-and-historical program, that foresees the uprising of free political subjects as a consequence of the gradual formation of an autonomous social sphere within a political body. Thus, this materialist had been conducted to the consolidation/consecration of individuals as possessive and industrious subjects.

Free Research Field

社会思想史、フランス文学・思想

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究成果によれば、ディドロは、政治的自由主義（「資本主義と民主主義の結婚」の理想）と同時に、解放の大きな物語（「文明化」を目指す政治）の先駆者であった。さらに、この両側面は、生理学・自然誌に根差す唯物論によって基礎づけられた（生政治）。これら一連の視点は、啓蒙の政治理念が、今日なおどこまで有効であるかを考察する際に不可欠であろう。4年間に発表された仏語論文6本・邦語論文3本（近刊含む）は、ディドロ研究・『両インド史』研究の分野で高い評価を受け、研究代表者は2016年からは、『両インド史』批評校訂版編纂委員会共同ディレクターとして、遅滞してきたプロジェクトの再始動にも貢献した。