The Creation of Encyclopedia :: History Philosophy Philosophers essays

The Creation of Encyclopedia Websters New World vocabulary defines the Enlightenment as an 18th-century European philosophical exploit characterized by rationalism, an momentum toward learning, and a spirit of skepticism and empiricism in social and policy-making thought. During this period of enlightenment, the way the world was viewed changed in a large distinguish because of the group of philosophers cognise as the philosophes. During the Enlightenment the greatest philosophical movement of the philosophes was the creation of the Encylopedie ou Dicionnaire raisonne des sciences des arts et des mtiers, or in English the rational dictionary of the sciences, the arts and the crafts, otherwise known as the Encyclopedia. The philosophes encyclopedia is regarded so highly because it brought about a newly way of thinking, an enlightened way of thinking. The encyclopedia, according to the Electric Library, dates back to Aristotle and his attempts at compiling large amount s of information. Other encyclopedias were written after Aristotles attempt, including one that was produce just a few years before the philosophes Encyclopedia, the Ephraim Chamberss Cyclopaedia. (1) According to the Denis Diderot account web page, the Ephraim Chamberss Cyclopaedia was the inspiration for the philosophes Encyclopedia. The intention was to create a French translation of the Ephraim Chamberss Cyclopaedia, but when Denis Diderot was hired as editor, the outlook of the Encyclopedia changed. Diderot did non want a mere translation instead he wanted an encyclopedia that would enlighten and explain every aspect of existence. (1) Denis Diderot and another editor, blue jean le Rond dAlembert, a noted scientist and mathematician, started working on the Encyclopedia in 1745. Among the many responsibilities of creating such a big compilation of friendship, was finding authors to publish the Encyclopedia. To accomplish this task, Diderot and dAlembert employed t he services of some of the greatest minds of the time volume like Voltaire, Turgot, Quesnay, dHolbach, Montesquieu, Buffon, and Rousseau. Robert Morrissey summed up the philosophes efforts by saying that, these great minds (and some lesser ones) collaborated in the goal of assembling and disseminating in clear, accessible prose the fruits of accumulated knowledge and learning. (2) The Encyclopedia itself consists of seventeen volumes with a total of roughly 72,000 obliges and 16,500 pages. According to Morrisey, the normal article includes the head word, its part of speech and gender, the category of knowledge to which the article belongs (e.