Enlightening the World: Encyclopedie, The Book That Changed the Course of History
Rameau's Nephew and D'Alembert's Dream
A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry, Vol. 1
The Architectural Plates from the "Encyclopedie"
Thoughts on the Interpretation of Nature and Other Philosophical Works
Science and Humanism in the French Enlightenment
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot Quotes
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French philosopher and writer of L'Encyclopédie (1751-1772), epitomizing the spirit of Enlightenment thought: much more than a work of reference, L'Encyclopédie became a program for change, transferring knowledge and authority from the clerical to the secular domains; with its publication, religion and irreligion became polarized and the various shades of distinction within Deism and natural religion began to disappear. Denis Diderot was One of the most brilliant, versatile, and prolific writers of the French "philosophic" generation, nicknamed "Pantophile Diderot" by Voltaire,because of his unbounded interest in almost every branch of human activity.
Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with (Jacques the Fatalist and His Master), which emulated Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding novels, their structure and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will. Diderot is also known as the author of the essay, "Regrets on Parting with My Old Dressing Gown," upon which many an article and sermon about consumer desire have been based.
From
Wikipedia
Denis Diderot (October 5, 1713 – July 31, 1784) was a French
philosopher and writer. He was a prominent figure in the Enlightenment,
and editor-in-chief of the famous Encyclopédie.
Diderot also contributed to literature, notably with Jacques le fataliste
et son maître (Jacques the Fatalist and His Master), which emulated
Laurence Sterne in challenging conventions regarding novels, their structure
and content, while also examining philosophical ideas about free will.
Diderot is also known as the author of the essay, "Regrets on Parting
with My Old Dressing Gown," upon which many an article and sermon
about consumer desire have been based.(more)
Bibliography of Denis Diderot
* Essai sur le mérite et la vertu, written by Shaftesbury
French translation and annotation by Diderot (1745)
* Pensées philosophiques, essay (1746)
* La promenade du sceptique (1747)
* Les bijoux indiscrets, novel (1748)
* Lettre sur les aveugles à l'usage de ceux qui voient (1749)
* L'Encyclopédie, (1750-1765)
* Lettre sur les sourds et muets (1751)
* Pensées sur l'interprétation de la nature, essai (1751)
* Le fils naturel (1757)
* Entretiens sur le Fils naturel (1757)
* Discours sur la poesie dramatique (1758)
* Salons, critique d'art (1759-1781)
* La Religieuse, Roman (1760)
* Le neveu de Rameau, dialogue (1761?)
* Lettre sur le commerce de la librairie (1763)
* Mystification ou l’histoire des portraits (1768)
* Entretien entre D'Alembert et Diderot (1769)
* Le rêve de D'Alembert, dialogue (1769)
* Suite de l'entretien entre D'Alembert et Diderot (1769)
* Paradoxe sur le comédien (1769?)
* Apologie de l'abbé Galiani (1770)
* Principes philosophiques sur la matière et le mouvement, essai
(1770)
* Entretien d'un père avec ses enfants (1771)
* Jacques le fataliste et son maître, novel (1771-1778)
* Supplément au voyage de Bougainville (1772)
* Histoire philosophique et politique des deux Indes, in collaboration
with Raynal (1772-1781)
* Voyage en Hollande (1773)
* Eléments de physiologie (1773-1774)
* Réfutation d'Helvétius (1774)
* Observations sur le Nakaz (1774)
* Essai sur les règnes de Claude et de Néron (1778)
* Lettre apologétique de l'abbé Raynal à Monsieur
Grimm (1781)
* Aux insurgents d'Amérique (1782)
* Salons
“The most dangerous madmen are those created by religion, and ... people whose aim is to disrupt society always know how to make good use of them on occasion.”
Articles and Links on
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) on The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Denis Diderot’s Influence on the Enlightenment
The rise of conservatism and the decline of liberalism
Reason's
Playboy
French Philosopher Denis Diderot had the intellectual brilliance that
sparkled in an 18th century drawing room, but he sometimes found less
conventional ways to display his native gifts. When a lady painter who
was doing his portrait objected that his clothes hid his neck, the eminent
thinker silently retired behind a curtain and reappeared a moment later
"as naked as a worm."
The
Voice
There was plenty of reason for the King's ministers to speak ill
of the book. It was edited by fiery Philosopher-Dramatist Denis Diderot,
and he had made it a good deal more than a compilation of all the knowledge
that was available at the middle of the 18th century. To many a Frenchman
it became the voice of Reason itself—a major intellectual weapon
of the Revolution, one of the brightest ornaments of the Enlightenment,
the foundation stone of the new secularism. Though Frenchmen have long
since ceased to read it, they have never ceased to revere it. Last week
they were expressing their reverence officially.
Dream
Chaser
Once, the two philosophers were names that made news. "Ye gods!"
a nobleman of Paris exclaimed. "Everywhere I go, I hear talk of
nobody but this Rousseau and this Diderot . . . People of the lowest
sort, people who do not even own their own houses, who live on the fourth
floor . . ." Today, except for a few scholars, people talk a good
deal less about Diderot than they do of Rousseau. Students who learn
of Diderot in college are apt to classify him as one of the great French
Encyclopedists, learn too little of his novels, plays and essays. If
they remembered him at all it was as a minor beam in France's 18th Century
age of enlightenment. Last week, Denis Diderot was having his innings.
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