The rupture of Diderot’s thought with deism: he criticizes the argument of design for the defense of a materialistic cosmology in the Letter on the Blind

Abstract

In the present work we will examine the work Letter on the blind for the use of those who come to treat Diderot’s criticism of the argument of the design. In short, the diderotian cosmology starts from the fundamental assumption that the origin and order of nature can be explained in the light of the concept of matter and its properties, without the need, therefore, of a Creator God. In this sense, matter and its processes suffice to account for the metaphysical question about the origins of the world and beings. Indeed, the unfolding of diderotian cosmology necessarily implies the refusal of the supernatural, of creation, of design, and of teleology