Diderot e la cultura inglese tra Shaftesbury e i freethinkers. La traduzione del testo come opportunità filosofica per una libre pensée

The script debates the impact that some early translating works had on the intellectual itinerary of Denis Diderot. The meeting with the English phi- losophy, mediated by such work, will indelibly mark the philosophe. The discovery of Shaftesbury through the translation of the Inquiry concerning Virtue and Merit most likely inspired several of Diderot’s mental attitudes, besides speeding up the separation from his native provincial environment. Moreover, Diderot, traslating the Medical Dictionary of James, comprehended how to structure large scale works with scientific content, which consequently had relevant repercussions on the work spread in the writing of the Encyclopèdie. Further a work written in advanced age, as the Essay on the Reigns of Claudius and Nero illustrates a dense series of connec- tion with this first season.