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“In truth, the aim of an ‘encyclopedie’ is to collect all the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth, to present its general outlines and structure to the men with whom we live, and to transmit this to those who will come after us, so that the work of past centuries may be useful to the following centuries, that our children, by becoming more educated, may at the same time become more virtuous and happier, and that we may not die without having deserved well of the human race. … We have seen that our ‘Encyclopedie’ could only have been the endeavor of a philosophical century; that this age has dawned, and that fame, while raising to immortality the names of those who will perfect man’s knowledge in the future, will perhaps not disdain to remember our own names. … I have said that it could belong only to a philosophical age to attempt an ‘encyclopedie’; and I have said this because such a work constantly demands more intellectual daring than is commonly found in ages of pusillanimous taste. All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone’s feelings. …”
Denis Diderot
(1713-1784)
from Kramnick, Isaac, Ed., The Portable Enlightenment Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1995. |
