Aesthetic of Salon Didactic and the Toleration of Epicurean Atomism

This project explores the reception of ancient materialist philosophy in the intellectual and literary culture of the late 18th century in France—particularly atomism, materialism, and their implications of atheism in the Epicurean school of thought. The study is centered on one salon network wherein such radical philosophical ideas were debated, refined, and disseminated. By examining how particular thinkers engaged with and adapted classical materialist philosophy, this project seeks to illuminate how these ideas were shaped by the social and aesthetic context in which they were confronted.