Quotation
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“Posterity is for the philosopher what the other world is for the religious person.”
Denis Diderot · Enlightenment · Enlightenment · 1766
What does it mean?
Where a believer looks to a life after death, he says the philosopher looks to the judgement of people not yet born, and posterity is the horizon that makes a present sacrifice intelligible. The usual reading places the comparison in the correspondence with Falconet about sculpture and whether future generations can motivate a maker. A rival reading hears only vanity, a bid to be admired later, and the letters do show ambition, but they also ask a serious question about secular hope. The English here compresses that discussion rather than quoting one full letter.
Did Denis Diderot really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Diderot develops this comparison in the correspondence with Falconet about posterity and sculpture. The English here is a recognised compression of that discussion, not a full letter. The sense is his. The sentence-shape is editorial.
Where it comes from
Letter to Étienne-Maurice Falconet, 15 February 1766, paraphrased
Approximate date: 1766.
How to use it
Ask which audience a hard project is actually for: a community history in Bradford that will not be finished this year, or the applause available at Thursday's meeting. If the answer is only today's reaction, the horizon he describes is not in use. Naming posterity does not by itself improve the work; It changes the timescale against which a dull month can still be a reason to continue.
A mindset reading
Posterity can be a vanity of its own, a future audience invented so that present neglect feels noble. The line is interesting because it shows a secular hope doing the work of an afterlife, including the risk of that hope. Falconet was not sure the thought of future viewers could really move a sculptor; The argument is unfinished in the way a correspondence is unfinished, and the compression should not hide that.
Understand the philosophy
Diderot is arguing with Falconet about motivation, monuments, and whether a statue should be made for people who do not yet exist. The key term is posterity, the judgement of later generations standing in for another world. The exchange belongs with his atheism and with his aesthetics at once. This English is a recognised compression of the letters of 1766, and it is marked as one.
- meaning
- society
- death
FAQ
What does it mean?
Where a believer looks to a life after death, he says the philosopher looks to the judgement of people not yet born, and posterity is the horizon that makes a present sacrifice intelligible. The usual reading places the comparison in the correspondence with Falconet about sculpture and whether future generations can motivate a maker. A rival reading hears only vanity, a bid to be admired later, and the letters do show ambition, but they also ask a serious question about secular hope. The English here compresses that discussion rather than quoting one full letter.
Did Denis Diderot really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Diderot develops this comparison in the correspondence with Falconet about posterity and sculpture. The English here is a recognised compression of that discussion, not a full letter. The sense is his. The sentence-shape is editorial.
Which work is it in?
Letter to Étienne-Maurice Falconet, 15 February 1766, paraphrased Approximate date: 1766.