Neither Diderot’s detractors nor his disciples were wrong to emphasize the author’s career-long campaign against God. And yet, today, incredulity is far from the most compelling aspect of his writing. What really distinguishes him from his peers is what he accomplished after doing away with the deity. Although Diderot is undoubtedly the steward of the age of the Encyclopédie, he is also, paradoxically, the only major thinker of his generation who questioned the rational perspective that is at the heart of the Enlightenment project.
