This book features the most significant aspects of life and work of Denis Diderot (1713-1784), French philosopher, art critic, and writer, who is best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie. Diderot was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment. In the 1740s he wrote many of his best-known works in both fiction and non-fiction, including the 1748 novel The Indiscreet Jewels. In 1751, Diderot co-created the Encyclopédie with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. The Encyclopédie is most famous for representing the thought of the Enlightenment. Its contributors advocated for the secularization of learning away from the Jesuits. Diderot wanted to incorporate all of the world's knowledge into the Encyclopédie and hoped that the text could disseminate all this information to the public and future generations. It was also the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors and the first to describe the mechanical arts. Its secular tone, which included articles skeptical about Biblical miracles, angered both religious and government authorities; in 1758 it was banned by the Catholic Church and in 1759 the French government banned it as well, although this ban was not strictly enforced. Many of the initial contributors to the Encyclopédie left the project as a result of its controversies and some were even jailed. D'Alembert left in 1759, making Diderot the sole editor. Diderot also became the main contributor, writing around 7,000 articles. He continued working on the project until 1765. The Encyclopédie is often considered an influence and one of the forerunners of the French Revolution because of its emphasis on Enlightenment political theories.
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John Morley. Diderot and the Encyclopaedists
Diderot and the Encyclopaedists
Table of Contents
Volume 1
Table of Contents
PREFACE
DIDEROT. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY
CHAPTER II. YOUTH
CHAPTER III. EARLY WRITINGS
CHAPTER IV. THE NEW PHILOSOPHY
I
II
III
CHAPTER V. THE ENCYCLOPÆDIA
I
II
III
CHAPTER VI. SOCIAL LIFE (1759–1770)
CHAPTER VII. THE STAGE
CHAPTER VIII. RAMEAU'S NEPHEW
FOOTNOTES
Volume 2
Table of Contents
CHAPTER I. OTHER DIALOGUES
CHAPTER II. ROMANCE
CHAPTER III. ART
CHAPTER IV. ST. PETERSBURG AND THE HAGUE
CHAPTER V. HELVÉTIUS
CHAPTER VI. HOLBACH’S SYSTEM OF NATURE
CHAPTER VII. RAYNAL’S HISTORY OF THE INDIES
CHAPTER VIII. DIDEROT’S CLOSING YEARS
CHAPTER IX. CONCLUSION
I
II
III
IV
V
APPENDIX. RAMEAU’S NEPHEW: A TRANSLATION
FOOTNOTES
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John Morley
Complete Edition (Vol. 1&2)
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One of Diderot's writings composed about our present date (1747), the Promenade du Sceptique, did not see the light until after his death. His daughter tells us that a police agent came one day to the house, and proceeded to search the author's room. He found a manuscript, said, "Good, that is what I am looking for," thrust it into his pocket, and went away. Diderot did his best to recover his piece, but never succeeded.[43] A copy of it came into the hands of Naigeon, and it seems to have been retained by Malesherbes, the director of the press, out of goodwill to the author. If it had been printed, it would certainly have cost him a sojourn in Vincennes.
We have at first some difficulty in realising how he police could know the contents of an obscure author's desk. For one thing we have to remember that Paris, though it had been enormously increased in the days of Law and the System (1719–20), was still of a comparatively manageable size. In 1720, though the population of the whole realm was only fourteen or fifteen millions, that of Paris had reached no less a figure than a million and a half. After the explosion of the System, its artificial expansion naturally came to an end. By the middle of the century the highest estimate of the population does not make it much more than eight hundred thousand.[44] This, unlike the socially unwholesome and monstrous agglomerations of Paris or London in our own time, was a population over which police supervision might be made tolerably effective. It was more like a very large provincial town. Again, the inhabitants were marked off into groups or worlds with a definiteness that is now no longer possible. One-fifth of the population, for instance, consisted of domestic servants.[45] There were between twenty-eight and thirty thousand professional beggars.[46] The legal circle was large, and was deeply engrossed by its own interests and troubles. The world of authorship, though extremely noisy and profoundly important, still made only a small group. One effect of a censorship is to produce much gossip and whispering about suspected productions before they see the light, and these whispers let the police into as many secrets as they choose to know.
