Where was denis diderot born

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Diderot, the Testing Years, 1713-1759 by Arthur McCandless Wilson (1902-1979).

Excerpt on lemma which are no more than "empty names":

"The Encyclopédie was interested in the scientific method" and "the greatest function of the work ... was that of making people more aware of the methodological problems that constantly beset the acquisition of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. Obviously this was a campaign that had to be conducted on many fronts. One of them was the attack on words or names that in reality were devoid of meaning. Diderot's technique was to call attention to names, especially of plants and animals, about which little more was known than simply the empty name itself. For example, he wrote about 'Aguaxima': 'A plant of Brazil and of the islands of southern America. That is all that we are told of it; and I would willingly inquire for whom such descriptions are made. It cannot be for the natives, who very likel

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Denis Diderot

French philosopher and writer (1713–1784)

"Diderot" redirects here. For the lunar impact crater, see Diderot (crater).

Denis Diderot (;^[2]French:[dənidid(ə)ʁo]; 5 October 1713 – 31 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a prominent figure during the Age of Enlightenment.^[3]

Diderot initially studied philosophy at a Jesuit college, then considered working in the church clergy before briefly studying law. When he decided to become a writer in 1734, his father disowned him. He lived a bohemian existence for the next decade. In the 1740s he wrote many of his best-known works in both fiction and non-fiction, including the 1748 novel Les Bijoux indiscrets (The Indiscreet Jewels).

In 1751 Diderot co-created the Encyclopédie with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. It was the first encyclopedia to include contributions from many named contributors and the first to describe the

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Denis Diderot

parti philosophique. In narrating their own history, however, the philosophes rarely paid attention to the accidents and contingencies that had actually shaped this history. Like all political movements, they constructed a mythology of origins consonant with their own interests, and to their credit their story has proven so powerful that it has since been accepted uncritically by historians and modern Enlightenment ideologues ever since. Speaking from a position somewhere outside the Enlightenment, this book has offered a different and more complex account of this history, one that has tried to show the actual historical linkages that tied Newton to Enlightenment in France. Newton’s solitary genius is still offered far too often as the singular reason for his status as the father of modern physics, while the French Enlightenment continues to be celebrated too frequently as Newton’s natural and unmediated off spring. Each of these mythologies needs to be scrutinized, and if this book strikes a heavy blow against this overly pervasive and persuasive edifice, it will