Diderot’s Understanding of “Faith” as an Enlightenmented and Encyclopedist Political Philosopher

Abstract

Diderot, a humanist Enlightenment and Encyclopedist thinker, is one of the prominent figures who laid the intellectual foundations of the French Revolution by valuing the scientific knowledge and social solidarity that came to the forefront in the Enlightenment and the idea of solidarity, and by working to ensure that the people's decisiveness in political issues was accepted on a European level. Although his literary aspect is highlighted today as a pioneer of Romanticism, Diderot's most fundamental characteristics are that he represented the progressive ideas of the Enlightenment that rejected belief and belief-oriented approaches. In addition, as an Encyclopedist, Diderot is one of the intellectual architects of politically critical thought, which is directed towards belief-oriented approaches. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to clearly reveal Diderot’s view of belief and to reveal the influence of the Enlightenment on his thoughts. For this purpose, the study uses the “in-depth content analysis method” as a social science method in accordance with the historical and theoretical perspective of the subject. The text has been constituted under the titles that include the Enlightenment, Encyclopedia, and Diderot as a thinker, along with his faith-based ideas and the arguments he put forward in this context. The study is limited to the framework of the Enlightenment in the context of the foundation and formation of Diderot’s views on belief. Within this framework, the study is presented within the cause-and-effect relationship with direct and indirect references to the subject, using primary and secondary sources, and finally, it is concluded with an evaluation chapter.