Editing Denis Diderot (section)

====Synopsis====
The narrator in the book recounts a conversation with {{ill|Jean-François Rameau|fr|Jean-François Rameau|lt=Jean-François Rameau,}} nephew of the famous composer [[Jean-Philippe Rameau]]. The nephew composes and teaches music with some success but feels disadvantaged by his name and is jealous of his uncle. Eventually he sinks into an indolent and debauched state. After his wife's death, he loses all self-esteem and his brusque manners result in him being ostracized by former friends. A character profile of the nephew is now sketched by Diderot: a man who was once wealthy and comfortable with a pretty wife, who is now living in poverty and decadence, shunned by his friends. And yet this man retains enough of his past to analyze his despondency philosophically and maintains his sense of humor. Essentially he believes in nothing—not in religion, nor in morality; nor in the  Roussean view about nature being better than civilization since in his opinion every species in nature consumes one another.<ref name=AoV />{{rp|660}} He views the same process at work in the economic world where men consume each other through the legal system.<ref name=AoV />{{rp|660–661}} The wise man, according to the nephew, will consequently practice hedonism:

{{Blockquote|Hurrah for wisdom and philosophy!—the wisdom of Solomon: to drink good wines, gorge on choice foods, tumble pretty women, sleep on downy beds; outside of that, all is vanity.<ref name=AoV />{{rp|661}}}}

The dialogue ends with Diderot calling the nephew a wastrel, a coward, and a glutton devoid of spiritual values to which the nephew replies: "I believe you are right."<ref name=AoV />{{rp|661}}