Writing after Materialism

This chapter attempts to contextualise Hemsterhuis’ organology in terms of other contemporaneous doctrines—particularly those of Diderot and Bonnet. The first section looks at the way Diderot read Hemsterhuis’ early work as a way-in to the problematic of Hemsterhuis’ use and abuse of the materialist tradition, the second turns conversely to Hemsterhuis’ own reading of Diderot and particularly the organology of Le Rêve de D'Alembert , the third shows the ways in which Bonnet’s appropriation of organological tropes to attack materialism provided a precursor to Hemsterhuis’ project, and the final section indicates how Hemsterhuis went beyond Bonnet in using materialist styles, as well as materialist concepts, against materialism . The first section, then, turns on Diderot’s comment that Hemsterhuis philosophises ‘in a harlequin’s dress’, that is, intentionally produces a philosophy full of ‘contradictions’. The second section continues with the Hemsterhuis-Diderot relation, focusing on Hemsterhuis’ reading of Le Rêve . The third section turns from materialist organologies to immaterialist ones and specifically Charles Bonnet’s palingenesis. The final section of the chapter has a twofold task: to make explicit the extent to which Hemsterhuis is embroiled in these organological debates and to show how this impacts on his reflections on philosophical style.

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