WHISPERERS
A French philosopher, aged 60, travelled 2,100 kilometers by horse-driven carriage to meet an empress in Russia.
Goenawan Mohamad
May 19, 2020
They admired each other. They exchanged ideas. They were both disappointed.
Diderot, the elderly philosopher, was a figure of the 18th century European Enlightenment. He was both a motivator of and motivated by that era, which prioritized rationalism over religious doctrine and reason over political authority. Meaning that in Europe prior to French Revolution, before the Church and the Monarchy were toppled, Diderot was a bearer of views that we
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