Philosophize by the fire, in the house where Diderot and Marquise de Sevigne were guests.

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He sketches the early lives of Diderot, Holbach, Rousseau and other players in the drama, and describes the philosophy they hammered out.

ECONOMIST: Atheism and the Enlightenment

Even today, and even in secular western Europe, the bald and confident atheism and materialism of Diderot and Holbach seems mildly shocking.

ECONOMIST: Atheism and the Enlightenment

Inspired by famed writers and poets, each room is individually designed to reflect the musings of greats such as Baudelaire, Calderon and Diderot.

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Over the centuries, its guests have included the Marquise de Sevigne, whose letters documented 17th-century French society, and Enlightenment thinker and encyclopedist Denis Diderot.

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Diderot and Bertrand Russell, two famous earlier non-believers, would also have been puzzled by what has happened to God at the hands of the western intelligentsia.

ECONOMIST: Religion and science

Diderot was imprisoned for his writings, an experience, Mr Blom argues, that left him too scared to lay out his philosophy plainly, instead disguising it within numerous plays, novels and letters.

ECONOMIST: Atheism and the Enlightenment

It is a tragedy of history, the author concludes, that Voltaire and Rousseau won the battle of ideas, whereas Diderot was reduced to the rank of editor of the encyclopedia, and Holbach was forgotten utterly.

ECONOMIST: Atheism and the Enlightenment