By the end of Rameau’s Nephew, Lui has left much of Moi’s benevolent humanism — and what will later be called the philosophy of the Enlightenment project — in tatters. Lui reduces virtue, friendship, country, the education of one’s children, and achieving a meaningful place in society to nothing more than our vanity, to our tainted, narcissistic desire to make ourselves more attractive to our entourage. No matter who we are, he suggests, we are all corrupted, acting out various pantomimes to get what we want and to take advantage of those around us. The only difference between Lui and us is
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