D Alembert's Dream By Denis Diderot

The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy defines sensibility, in it’s purest form, as a way of feeling. Denis Diderot poses a natural and materialist view on sensibility. Diderot states this way of feeling happens both in singular organisms and contiguous masses. When forming a mass, organisms develop a separate mind. A single, new, sensible network structured between them. The mind-body problem, a philosophical question concerning the relationship between the mind and body, had often been studied at a level of the individual. Diderot broadens this scope in his conversational dialog, D’Alembert’s Dream. In his text Diderot explains his philosophy on the mind-body problem. A series of analogies and examples including, bees, spiders, and music are entertained between the speakers in their search for an answer.

He questions what happens when these bees hang off one-another and what would come of a stinging between two bees in the chain. Decidedly this would cause each to pinch the next bee in line, throwing the formerly linked system into a frenzy. This is Diderot's first introduction to what he calls a thread. A thread is the connection between sensible organisms, parts of the human body, or parts of any system. Diderot claims this is the pathway by which the senses travel between mind and body. However, this system does not only apply to the human. Any ecosystem, planet, or universe is bound by this natural thread permitting them to sense surrounding actions. However, a system of thread must be contiguous to sense, which explains our inability to immediately react to actions upon