List of Abbreviations List of figures Acknowledgments Introduction 1: One question, two thinkers 1.1: Determinism 1.2: Diderot 1.3: D''Holbach 2: Linking everything together 2.1: Diderot and d''Holbach 2.2: D''Holbach and determinism 2.3: Diderot and determinism 3: Synopsis 3.1: Building blocks 3.
2: Of Individuals and Societies 3.3: Determinism, complexity, and atheism 4: Further aims of this book 5: N.B. 5.1: Determinism vs fatalism 5.2: Corpora and chronology Chapter I: Three Fundamental Principles 1: Background 1.1: The Causal Principle 1.2: The Causal Principle under attack 1.
3: The Principle of Sufficient Reason 1.4: Causal Principle, Principle of Sufficient Reason, and Cosmological Argument 1.5: Hume''s criticisms of the Cosmological Argument 1.6: The Nihil ex Nihilo Principle 2: Diderot and d''Holbach 2.1: Diderot, d''Holbach, and the Nihil ex Nihilo Principle 2.2: Diderot, d''Holbach, and the Causal Principle 2.3: For the sake of determinism and science 2.4: Diderot, d''Holbach, and the Principle of Sufficient Reason 2.
5: Causa sive ratio 2.6: Cause and reason in Diderot''s and d''Holbach''s writings 2.7: Why do Diderot and d''Holbach endorse the Principle of Sufficient Reason? 3: Conclusion Chapter II: Causal Necessitation 1: Background 1.1: Causal Necessitation 1.2: Causal and Logical Necessitation 1.3: The argument from essence 1.4: The argument from total cause 1.5: No Necessary Connection Arguments 2: Diderot and d''Holbach on Causal Necessitation 2.
1: Suites et effets nécessaires 2.2: Additional evidence 2.3: Causal Necessitation in the moral world 2.4: Diderot and d''Holbach on the equivalence of Causal and Logical Necessitation 2.5: D''Holbach and the argument from essence 2.6: Diderot: the argument from essence and the argument from ''cause une'' 3: Causal Necessitation and theology 3.1: The reasons behind it all 4: Conclusion Chapter III: Laws of Nature 1: Background 1.1: Laws of nature in eighteenth-century France 1.
2: The Top-Down View 1.3: The Bottom-Up View 1.4: Spinoza 2: D''Holbach and the laws of nature 2.1: D''Holbach and the Bottom-Up View 2.2: D''Holbach and the Top-Down View 2.3: D''Holbach''s compromise 3: Diderot and the laws of nature 3.1: Two arguments against Diderot''s belief in the laws of nature 3.2: A glance at the texts 3.
3: Diderot and mathematics 3.4: Diderot and the Bottom-Up View 4: Conclusion Chapter IV: Moral Freedom 1: Background 1.1: ''Liberté naturelle'', ''liberté civile'', and ''liberté politique'' 1.2: Moral freedom 1.3: The Alternative Possibilities Model 1.4: The Source Model 1.5: Moral Freedom and determinism 2: Diderot and d''Holbach on Moral Freedom 2.1: Diderot and d''Holbach on the Source Model 2.
2: Internal and external causes 2.3: External causes 2.4: Internal causes 2.5: Internal and external causes reconsidered 2.6: Diderot and d''Holbach on the Alternative Possibilities Model 2.7: Outright rejection of Moral Freedom 2.8: Moral responsibility 3: Conclusion Chapter V: Individuals and Society 1: A deterministic theory of human life 1.1: Machines de chair 1.
2: Pensées décousues 1.2: Dreaming 1.3: Madness 1.4: Scientific discoveries 1.5: Artistic production 1.6: Aesthetic experience 2: No man is an island 2.1: Love 2.2: Machines d''hommes 2.
3: Causal Necessitation and Laws of Nature 2.4: Of climate and rulers 2.5: Social change in a deterministic world Conclusion Chapter VI: Paradoxes of Determinism 1: Determinism and complexity 1.1: Diderot and complexity 1.2: D''Holbach and complexity 1.3: Against the Argument from Design 1.4: Determinism vs complexity 1.5: A complex theory of determinism 2: Of Predictability, chance, (dis)order, and atheism 2.
1: Determinism and predictability 2.2: Determinism and chance 2.3: Determinism or (dis)order 2.4: Diderot and d''Holbach''s atheism reconsidered 3. Jacques le fataliste et son maître 3.1: Les chainons, le grand rouleau, et le dieu de Malebranche 3.2: The mirage of freedom and the Leibnizian God 3.3: Jacques, Hume, and superstition Conclusion Conclusion Bibliography Pre-1850 sources Post-1850 sources.