Abstract
In this chapter, my intention is to highlight some aspects of the idea of genius formulated in Diderot’s thought. The approach is not merely philological or historiographical. Instead, I am interested in studying the actuality of a notion that tantalizes us because of the multiplicity of its aspects, starting from the so-called prophetic spirit.
According to Diderot, this form adopted by an unidentified quality of the human soul does not coincide with imagination, judgment, wit, warmth and vivacity, and sensibility or taste, although it shares some features with each of these faculties.
This research, carried out with reference to the main categories of the Husserlian phenomenology, permits individuation of the core of the prophetic spirit in a special form of intuition, the intuition of essences.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
- 2.
Quoted in Aurelii Augustini, Opera Omnia, PL 41, De Civitate Dei contra Paganos, VII, 13.
- 3.
- 4.
In this sense we can interpret some references to the physiology of the genius found in Diderot: “Arts consiste dans un arrangement heureux des organes du cerveau, dans la bonne conformation de chacun de ces organes, come dans la qualité du sang, laquelle se dispose à fermenter durant le travail, de manière qu’il fournisse en abondance des esprits aux ressorts qui servent aux fonctions de l’imagination” (Diderot 1875, XIV : 322–3).
- 5.
See also Doolittle (1952).
- 6.
- 7.
In the English translation of Husserl’s book Ideen zu eienr reinen Phaenomenologie the term erlebnis is translated with “mental process.” It seems to me that such a translation is not able to capture the component of partecipation to which I referred earlier.
References
Aportone, A., P. Spinicci, and A. Brancacci. 2003. Il problema dell’intuizione. Tre studi su Platone, Kant, Husserl. Napoli: Bibliopolis.
Diderot, D. 1875. Oeuvres Complètes. Paris: Garnier Frères.
Dieckmann, H. 1941. Diderot’s conception of genius. Journal of the History of Ideas 2(2): 151–182.
Doolittle, J. 1952. Hieroglyph and emblem in Diderot’s Lettre sur le Sourds et Muets. Diderot’s Studies 2: 148–167.
Franzini, E., and M. Mazzucot-Mis. 2003. I nomi dell’estetica. Milano: Bruno Mondadori.
Gross, A.G. 1996. The rhetoric of science. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Gross, A.G., J.E. Harmon, and M.S. Reidy. 2002. Communicating science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Husserl, E. 1998. Ideas pertaining to a pure phenomenology and to a phenomenological philosophy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publisher.
Lévinas, E. 2002. La teoria dell’intuizione nella fenomenologia di Husserl. Milano: Jaca Book.
Marquard, O. 1991. In defense of the accidental: Philosophical studies. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moretti, G. 1998. Il genio. Bologna: Il Mulino.
Onnis, R. 1970. Diderot e il problema del genio. Rivista di Estetica 15: 208–223.
Raggiunti, R. 1967. Husserl. Dalla logica alla fenomenologia. Firenze: Le Monnier.
Swales, J. 1990. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scarafile, G. (2014). The “Esprit Prophetique”: Brief Remarks on the Phenomenology of Genius in Diderot. In: Riesenfeld, D., Scarafile, G. (eds) Perspectives on Theory of Controversies and the Ethics of Communication. Logic, Argumentation & Reasoning, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7131-4_14
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7131-4_14
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-7130-7
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-7131-4
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawPhilosophy and Religion (R0)