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The Reading

Let’s take a look at the now classic tale of Rameau’s Nephew by Denis Diderot. Keep an eye open for the tension in the story. Diderot was a firm believer in progress, refinement and reason – a real Enlightenment man – but he came up against someone who was mentally crippled by the social changes that the Enlightenment championed.

Some key concepts that will help you read Rameau’s Nephew

1. This is a recognizably capitalist society: Rameau’s nephew constantly critiques his society as one where making money has become the measure of status. For example, he says “what does it matter whether you have a position or not so long as you are rich, since you only take up a position in order to get rich? Fulfilling your duties, where does that land you?” Later on in the story, he laments “money, money. Money is all, and the rest, without money is nothing.”

2. This is a more individualistic society, where one plays many roles and where it is more difficult to find one’s place: Rameau’s nephew points out the worst features of the new economy. “What a bloody awful economy: some men bursting with everything, while others, with stomachs just as clamorous and a hunger just as remitting, have nothing to get there teeth into. The necessitous man doesn’t walk like anybody else, he jumps, crawls, twists himself up, creeps along. He spends his life taking up positions and carrying them out.”

3. This is a society that has an increased tendency to alienate its members: A commonplace critique of capitalist societies is that they breed alienation. Alienation implies estrangement. It means that many people no longer feel they have a real place in their community; that they have far less control over their lives; and that it is harder to find fulfillment and satisfaction in one’s work or profession. Rameau’s nephew is the first fully developed alienated individual in literature. He is alienated from modern life and civilized progress because he can’t discover a personal meaning in it. “I do know what self-contempt is, or the torment of a soul that comes from the neglect of the talents heaven has vouchsafed us, which is the cruellest of all. It were almost better that a man had never been born.

Questions to Consider:

1. Where does this story take place and what can its setting tell us?

2. Who is the author and why should he interest us?

3. Who does Diderot meet? How does this person challenge Diderot’s optimistic vision of the world?

4. Underneath the veneer of progress and politeness, Rameau’s nephew points to something quite sinister and socially corrosive. What does he think modern people are about?

5. What does Rameau’s nephew say that he wants? Do you believe him?

6. Rameau’s nephew becomes a character without having a character. Why can’t he develop a complete personality in this new rational world?

7. How does Rameau’s nephew reflect the problem of alienation?

8. If the modern urban world is becoming a society characterized by complicated and differentiated roles, how does Rameau’s nephew describe this role playing scenario?

9. What is the real problem with ‘role playing’ for Rameau’s nephew?

10. What particular role does Rameau’s nephew say that he plays?

11. What is Diderot’s point in telling us so much about this flatterer, this lackey, this lying creature?

12. One can always decide not to be a sycophant. What does Rameau’s nephew suggest happens to a person who tries to be honest, dutiful, virtuous or even more intelligent?

13. How does Rameau’s nephew characterize commercial urban society in France?

14. What is the ruling principle of a commercial empire according to Rameau’s nephew?

15. Who has status in a commercial society?

16. What symbol of the lust for money does Diderot use (note here the prevalent anti-Semitism of eighteenth century European society)?

17. Rameau’s nephew claims that he is a simple sensualist. Doesn’t he have any good qualities? Is he an intrinsically bad person?

18. Why is it that Rameau’s nephew’s good qualities can’t be developed in this progressive, rational society?

19. Although everyone is dependent in modern society, Diderot shows us that the situation is worse for some than others. How does he do this?

20. What is Diderot’s solution?

21. What does Rameau’s nephew have to say about modern education?

22. Why do you think Diderot never published this book in his lifetime?

Sample Answers

1. The story takes place in Paris, the very heart of polite Enlightened civilization and the hub of most of France’s commercial traffic and luxury market. We know that we are going to be looking at a highly refined and progressive urban society.

2. Diderot is an advocate of progress, education and refinement. He is the quintessential representative of the Enlightenment and the author of the worlds first encyclopedia.

3. Rameau’s nephew tells him that the age of politeness is really one of conformity, where people merely act out a part. It is an amoral society that has lost its bearings. These were also the warnings of Jean Jacques Rousseau.

4. Rameau’s nephew believes that underneath all their politeness, refinement and toleration, people are really selfish, simply out to get what they can.

5. Rameau appears to be genuinely tormented – to feel self-disgust. He respects true talent and ability. He’d like to have that, but he can’t find room in a specialized society where only greatness is appreciated.

6. The modern world is highly specialized, characterized by an intricate division of labor where it is difficult to develop one’s full personality. Even genius has become specialized. Interestingly, Adam Smith who praised the progress that the division of labour made possible, also worried about its alienating effect on ordinary people, and suggested that they needed education to fill their minds and develop their characters.

7. This society has no place for Rameau’s nephew; it inhibits his ability to become an autonomous person. He can’t find a way to contribute to his culture, no matter how hard he tries.

8. Rameau’s nephew describes this society as full of self-interest role players who wear masks. Rousseau said much the same thing in his famous Discourse on the Origins of Inequality.

9. You never know who you are dealing with, and you have to be deceitful yourself if you want to fit in. Conformity and uniformity are the rule, at least for those beneath the stature of genius.

10. Rameau’s nephew plays the role of sychophant perfectly. He is a specialist in flattering the rich and powerful.

11. Modern civilization creates dependency and prevents the development of personality. Without a fully developed personality, it is impossible for many people to become ethical.

12. Honest people tend to lose their jobs.

13. He calls it a society of tyrants and slaves; most people have to take positions that they don’t believe in. Rameau’s nephew seriously calls into question the freedom in this society of people who are forced to take on roles.

14. The ruling principle of a commercial society is to get rich. The means of getting rich are irrelevant since, once one is rich, one is worshipped.

15. The people with status in this society are those who have money. Respect now follows money. Financiers and merchants are on their way to becoming the new heroes of the age.

16. The Jews. Diderot is typically anti-Semitic but at least he does say that Jewish culture values friendship more than money. The modern man of business values nothing more than money.

17. Rameau’s nephew has sharp powers of discrimination; he loves beauty and appreciates it; his conscience bothers him, especially when he plays the role of hypocrite; he clearly loves his wife and child.

18. Commercial society doesn’t care about goodness or ethics; only riches and flattery count for anything.

19. As society becomes increasingly differentiated in terms of wealth, there are greater distinctions between the rich and the poor. Now the poor are doubly victimized by being labeled as failures.

20. Diderot believes in the power of education to reform individuals and society, and to provide meaning and significance to life.

21. Rameau’s nephew argues that education is a con. People in a progressive society are not really interested in learning; they just want to learn the tricks of their trade or profession. Education is becoming job training.

22. Diderot believes in the power of education to create a more rational and humane world. But he does see some real dangers in the way the modern world is going, especially in the way that wealth is equated with status and the way that the division of labour makes people alienated from themselves and from one another. The story is clearly a warning about the possible corruption of goodness in an artificial and money driven society.

    We can only speculate as to why this brilliant work was never published in Diderot’s lifetime. Perhaps he thought it would give too much ammunition to the enemies of progress, toleration and reason. Clearly, he wrestled with issues that diverted from the typical Enlightened propaganda of reason, nature and education. Included among the many later writers who were influenced by Rameau’s Nephew were Hegel and Marx who found Diderot’s examination of alienation seminal for the time in which it was written.