ABSTRACT
Diderot, who had gambled all his hopes on posterity, was particularly apprehensive during the period leading up to the release of the Confessions, and as a result treated Rousseau so badly in his last published work that the journals saw fit to ask what monsieur le philosophe had to hide. Rousseau counted on posterity for absolution and redemption, Diderot for fame, and both for the victory of their respective definitions of Enlightenment. The romantic interpretation of Rousseau need not be altogether rejected. Misreadings and unwarranted appropriations of an earlier thinker are an important part of the historical record and therefore merit serious study. Surely an age such as ours, in which critiques of Enlightenment are in constant demand, can benefit from a reconsideration of the first and perhaps the most telling critique of Enlightenment, the one it gave of itself.
