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Marcheschi, Matteo

L'araignée dans sa toile : immagini della fisiologia diderottiana

2018 - Bibliopolis

P. 71-93

  • This essay deals with Diderot's philosophy starting from the image of the spider in its web (araignée dans sa toile) that constantly recurs in the work of the Philosophe. I will show how Diderot's peculiar use of this image gives rise to an original thought based on a complex interaction among different historical and philosophical traditions. This investigation will allow me to point out the relevance of the spider's metaphor to define the characters of a philosophy of imagination founded on comparaisons and analogies.First of all, I will trace the history of a tradition that – from Heraclitus and the Stoics to Bayle and Brucker's interpretation of Spinoza – considered the araignée dans sa toile as the image of the anima mundi. Secondly, I will show how, according to Descartes and Cartesian philosophers, the spider became the image of the human individual physiology.
  • Finally, the recall of other philosophical traditions considering the araignée as an animal equipped with a refined tact and a strong musical sensibility will allow me to illustrate how Diderot renewed the history of the spider's metaphor to give rise to a human being that shapes the world by images.[Publisher's text]

Fa parte di

Studi filosofici : annali dell'Istituto universitario orientale [AION] : XLI, 2018