Me and Him at the café
Follow the duel between the philosopher and Rameau’s nephew to see how a dialogue can let the most unsettling voice speak at full strength.
An original introduction. This guide accompanies the work; it is neither the complete text nor a translation.
Situating the text
Begun around 1761 in reaction to Palissot’s comedy The Philosophers, which had mocked Diderot and his friends in 1760, the dialogue was revised for years and never published by its author. It first appeared in Goethe’s German translation in 1805, and the autograph manuscript surfaced only in 1890, so that its history is itself a lesson in clandestine writing. In a Paris café, a philosopher called Me meets Him, the penniless and gifted nephew of the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau, a parasite of wealthy households who mimics musicians, beggars and patrons in dazzling pantomimes. Their conversation ranges over genius and morality, music, education and flattery, and the cynic’s frank account of a society of mutual exploitation proves hard to refute.
Following the arguments
Pantomime : The nephew acts out the whole social world with his body, showing that nearly everyone, minister or courtier, takes the “positions” of flattery before someone stronger. Genius and morality : Should a genius who makes those close to him suffer be preferred to a good man without talent? The dialogue keeps asking the question about Racine and never settles it. A torn consciousness : Hegel read the nephew as the voice of a culture that sees through its own values, a self-aware discord more lucid than the philosopher’s honest calm.
Continuing the reading
Read the opening portrait of the nephew, the pantomime of the beggars and the discussion of genius; keep track of who speaks, because the philosopher does not always win the argument he seems to stage. Begun around 1761 in reaction to Palissot’s comedy The Philosophers, which had mocked Diderot and his friends in 1760, the dialogue was revised for years and never published by its author. It first appeared in Goethe’s German translation in 1805, and the autograph manuscript surfaced only in 1890, so that its history is itself a lesson in clandestine writing.
Diderot does not refute his cynic; he lets lucidity and baseness speak together, so that readers must decide for themselves what an honest life requires.
Your turn to think.
- What does the pantomime of the beggars reveal about power and dependence in society?
- Does the philosopher answer the nephew’s cynicism, or does the dialogue leave it standing?
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