Diderot's Introduction and the Enlightenment - Part 2

In the first part, I have briefly mentioned Diderot and the Enlightenment. Then, I wrote what he thinks the encyclopedias represent, how they should be formed and in what way these are related to the revolutionary ideas of Enlightenment thinking. Lastly, I said that he finds revolutions as necessary and knowledge as infinite.

Notwithstanding, he also believes that in all the arts and sciences there is a part that can not be discovered no matter how much time has passed. This could be either because the knowledge itself is so top-tier, in other words, hard to grasp, or because of the idea that ‘‘the only thing that is not changing is the change itself’’. Thus, this progress in knowledge can be seen as constant due to its changing nature of it, leading to an endless discovery process. 

Besides all these, he briefly indicates some negative opinions towards the monarchy and its perspective. Saying that the spirit of monarchy scorns prudence so much that when someone dies, their work vanishes so thoroughly that no one can tell what happened to it. The separation of church and the state due to the clash of reason, facts and spirituality is significantly sharp in the Enlightenment philosophy. I believe, however, in his writings, Diderot, only points out the very little room for the accumulation of the knowledge and data within the monarchy. I wouldn’t prefer to say that there is a clear connection between his writing and the abovementioned aspect of Enlightenment philosophy.

Last but not least, he argues that there are two approaches to scientific cultivation; one is making discoveries and increasing the general knowledge and the other is being the middleman. These middlemen may take the already discovered facts and make them accessible, understandable, or come together so that others can find and understand the data more easily. And maybe by using them, other and new discoveries could be made.

Here, there is a clear emphasis on the importance of the distribution of knowledge and the contribution of masses, masses here in a way that is more than just a few elites. This perspective, also, is one of the core ideas that came into existence and got popular with the Enlightenment philosophy. The fact that elites are not the only class that should be able to reach new information since that wouldn’t be pragmatic in the way of the development of knowledge.

I believe I can finish by saying that The Definition of the Encyclopedia by Diderot is a very crucial essay that can be studied to understand how the certain values of Enlightenment affected the people and opinions in those times. Leading many people to create works such as encyclopedias and make them talk their minds based on their own reasons and facts that they have discovered. These were not so common or acceptable unless they were along with religious culture. All these demonstrate how this writing is historically informative about rational philosophy and the shift towards reason in modern human history.

For the article I'm referring to you can check:

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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