Denis Diderot’s Influence on the Enlightenment
Denis Diderot’s Influence on the Enlightenment
Denis Diderot was the most prominent of the French Encyclopdiasts, and his attacks on the political systems of France were some of the largest benefactors to the French Revolution. Diderot spent thirty years of his life compiling the Encyclopedie- an immense contribution to the Enlightenment of Europe- and dedicating his the rest of his life to helping others expand their realm of knowledge, thus adding Diderot to the list of prime initiators of the Enlightenment.
The roots of the Enlightenment began in the 17th century, beginning with rationalism and the laws of Descartes and Newton. Discoveries in natural science alchemized into the Enlightenment; society began observing and making conclusions on these observations, rather than just accepting what is told to them. The analytic method which Newton, Descartes, Galileo, and the other great discoverers were using became applied to the entire field of knowledge and thoughts, leading to many remarkable ideas. “The real power of reason lay not in the possession but in the acquisition of truth,” said Lessings. Society began looking for truths, looking at everything logically, and breaking the demarcations of dogmatism. Furthermore, unlike Socrates, logic was applied to rid the society of evils and injustice, rather than to just point the wrongs out. The Enlightenment dislodged the majority of society from the grasp that government and religion bestowed upon them, which plays a role in the French Revolution. The Enlightenment is credited to a core group of intellectual people: Voltaire, Hume, LeMettrie, d’Holbach, Pascal, Gibbon, Pierre Bayle- writer of a dictionary of history, he was a Galileo of history-, Montesquieu, Leibnitz, and most importantly, Diderot.
Denis Diderot, born in 1713, was educated by the Jesuits from 1728-1732, and then received the master of arts degree from the University of Paris. Diderot’s father wanted his son to study medicine or law, but Diderot wanted to be with books. Over the next few years Diderot had several jobs, mainly translating literature from English to French, married, and soon began writing texts. His first work was the “Essai sur le merite et la vertu” in 1745. During that same year Diderot began a job as an editor for an encyclopedia of math with Jean Le Rond d’Alembert. During that time he learned the encyclopedic process, which became valuable when he began work on his own encyclopedia....