Premise Course: How can we judge something’s value? Diderot’s Rameau’s Nephew
Online N/A, Portland, OR, United States(Learn about Premise classes here: https://www.premiseinstitute.com/premisefaq) We love to make value judgments: we argue about the quality of a TV show, the morality of a politician, the appropriateness of a tweet. Rameau’s Nephew, the secret classic by encyclopedic master of the French Enlightenment, Denis Diderot, is an incisive and honest consideration of how we might judge something as beautiful or good in the modern world. This whirlwind of a dialogue moves from music to virtue and education, crime, money, and on and on. Diderot presents himself as a thoughtful and upright intellectual, unconvinced by religion, supporting the latest science, and open to reforming society on new principles. But the real star of the show is Rameau (nephew of the famous composer also named Rameau) whose…