Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

Part 5

Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall introduce Diderot's extraordinary dialogue D'Alembert's Dream.

Diderot experts Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall join forces to introduce his most extraordinary work, "D'Alembert's Dream".

Denis Diderot's publications range from his monumental Encyclopedie to his erotic novella, Indiscreet Jewels, but perhaps his most extraordinary work is D'Alembert's Dream. It starts with Diderot's fellow encyclopedist, D'Alembert, challenging him to explain human life without making any reference to God or the soul or anything that isn't purely physical. Caroline Warman and Kate Tunstall, both Diderot experts at the University of Oxford, take on the Dream in a dialogue of their own and playfully challenge the listener to grapple with this quintessentially Enlightenment subject themselves.

15 minutes

Last on

Fri 22 Jan 2010 23:00

More episodes

Next

You are at the last episode

See all episodes from The Essay

Broadcast

  • Fri 22 Jan 2010 23:00

Death in Trieste

Death in Trieste

A 1760s murder still informs ideas about aesthetics, a certain sort of sex, and death.

Watch: My Deaf World

Watch: My Deaf World

Five compelling experiences of what it is like to be deaf in 21st-century Britain.

The Book that Changed Me

Five figures from the arts and science introduce books that changed their lives and work.

Download The Essay

Download The Essay

Download all the episodes from the series and listen at your leisure.

Podcast