 It is perhaps too naturalistic an ethics for some since “there is no rational goodness or wickedness, although there may be animal goodness or wickedness” (“Droit naturel”, Enc. V: 155b). By this Diderot means that we do not act in accordance with purely transcendent or immaterial principles in mind, but that we are determined by motives, affects, desires, instincts and so on. Yet at the same time, as we also saw regarding determinism, Diderot is concerned not only with the universe in its entirety but with specifically human chains of causal influence as well. “What is a human being?” he asks. “An animal? Undoubtedly, but dogs are animals too; so are wolves. Yet humans are neither wolves nor dogs” (SA; DPV XVI: 205).