Diderot's Introduction and the Enlightenment - Part 1

Denis Diderot is a French man of letters and philosopher who, from 1745 to 1772, served as chief editor of the Encyclopédie, one of the principal works of the Age of Enlightenment. He wrote a strong introduction to the Encyclopedia that we can find many components of the Enlightenment philosophy in it. So by examining this work, we can understand the relation between Enlightenment thinking and the outcomes of it that leads to significant changes both in its own time as well as for the many more years followed. 

The Enlightenment is a philosophical movement that emphasized reason and dominated Europe during the 18th century. It focuses on notions such as liberty, progress, knowledge, fraternity, separation of church and state, and so on. These values can be seen in the writing of Diderot starting from the very beginning, in the part where he defines the word encyclopedia. He claims that the word represents knowledge unity and means instruction, science, and knowledge. So we can say that the word choice was made consciously in a way that reflects the core values of the Enlightenment.

Furthermore, he believes that with the use of encyclopedias, the next generations will be better educated leading them to have an increasing level of happiness and virtue based on the increase in their knowledge. We are seeing here how knowledge is associated with positive things such as happiness. Then he starts writing about the purpose and the content of encyclopedias, saying “ An encyclopedia should encompass not only the fields already covered by the academies but each and every branch of human knowledge. This is a work that can be completed by a society of man of letters and skilled work-man, all bound together solely by their zeal for the best interest of the human race and a feeling of mutual goodwill.”

Here, it is possible for us to see more than one aspect of Enlightenment thinking. He emphasized the importance of the study, not only the study of notions just like in the dictionaries but also the study of the universal system of nature and art in a systematic way. Moreover, empirical knowledge acquisition and specialization in an area in order for someone to give the true definition of things was maybe the key characteristic of the encyclopedias that are able to reflect the importance of the context of them and also the quality of their composition of them, especially during its own time. The last value that can be found in his quote that is mentioned above is that of the idea of fraternity.  In order for humanity to achieve all these tasks leading the way to the cumulative knowledge that benefits the common good, he argues that they should work collectively.

On the other hand, he also argues the development of reason and science in this writing, explains how increasing doubts led to the progress of reason and new discoveries. He says “ We dare to raise doubts...” which I think clearly reflects the revolutionary spirit of the Enlightenment. Change and progress are used together in so many ways that we won’t be wrong if we say that he relates these two together, just like the advocates of the rational philosophy of the time.

In addition to these, there is a considerable amount of mention of changing the old information with the newly obtained data, referring to the former information as false or incomplete. He finds revolutions as necessary and knowledge as infinite. And put men in the center of all these, arguing their value comes from the significance of men. This is also parallel with the Enlightenment and how the studies during that time take the human as the base.

You can find the mentioned article in: Keith Michael Baker (ed.), The Old Regime and the French Revolution (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1987).

*Diderot, “The Definition of an Encyclopedia”, pp.71-89.

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