Person1713 – 1784
Denis Diderot
Also called: Diderot
French Enlightenment thinker who edited the Encyclopédie with d’Alembert, setting out the knowledge and techniques of the age in the light of reason
Where they went
1 related event
- 1
In the 18th century the Enlightenment, which used reason to criticise outdated institutions and superstition, spread from France. Voltaire attacked the intolerance of the Church, and from 1751 Diderot and d’Alembert published the Encyclopédie.
People who appear alongside
- Voltaire1694 – 1778
French Enlightenment writer who praised English liberty and fiercely attacked the intolerance and superstition of the Church
- Montesquieu1689 – 1755
French Enlightenment thinker whose The Spirit of the Laws called for separating legislative, executive and judicial powers so that each checks the others
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712 – 1778
Genevan Enlightenment thinker whose The Social Contract argued for popular sovereignty guided by the general will, influencing the French Revolution
Themes this person appears in
- Scientific Revolution, Enlightenment and the English Revolutions1543 – 1796
The Scientific Revolution from Copernicus to Newton, parliamentary government in England won through the Puritan and Glorious Revolutions, and the Enlightenment that sought to remake society by reason — the groundwork of the civic revolutions and the Industrial Revolution