 Instead of losing himself in reveries about the poetics of ruins and our transitory existence on the face of the earth, however, Diderot instantly asserts the pragmatic, “constructivist” and artificialist conclusion: since “It is the presence of man that makes the existence of beings interesting”, “Why not make man the center of our work?” The anthropocentrism here is of course not one which appeals to a human essence, or special dignity including some purported superiority we might possess over animals. It is rather a pragmatic position according to which schemes like the Encyclopédie, but also the arts, sciences and technological pursuits narrated in that work, serve to make that “landscape” meaningful.