Denis+Diderot

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 * Denis Diderot was born in Langres, Compagne on October 15,1713.
 * Died 1784
 * family of cutlers
 * Jesuit teachers thought that he was very smart
 * in 1726 he went to Louis-le-Grand college. Later he joined Jansenist College d'Harcourt
 * 1732 master degree of arts in philiosophy
 * 1734 tried to start earning a living by writing
 * He translated English books and tutored the children of the rich
 * 1743 he married Anne Toinette Champion
 * One surviving child named Angelique
 * He had to sell his library in order to pay for her marriage
 * January 21, 1746 Diderot was named the general Editor of a 10 volume encyclopedia
 * Books that he made or translated include:
 * 1) Syanyan's //History of Greece// (1743)
 * 2) Robert James's Medical Dictionary 1746–1748
 * 3) Shaftesbury's //Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Merit// (1745)
 * 4) and many more
 * He is famous for his translation of the Encyclopedia called Universal dictionary of arts and sciences
 * Translated to french
 * He studied all of his days and wrote what he had learned on his nights
 * He worked so hard that he even damaged his eyes
 * He made certain changes to the book
 * The first volume was published in 1751
 * Meant to help the average citizen
 * Disliked by certain groups because it took advantage of things like freedom of thought and religious toleration
 * In 1752 the books were considered illegal and Diderot's house was searched
 * fortunantally he had given the manuscripts to one of his friends so the police found nothing
 * In 1757 the book was formally suppressed
 * His work was defaced and mutilated by his very own bookseller
 * His work was not completed for until 20 years later in 1772

Script

Denis Diderot was born on October 15, 1713 in Langres, Compagne. This place is present day France. Even when he was a young boy his teachers thought that he was very smart. In his younger days he had a dream of joining the church clergy but those dreams died away when he went to college. In 1732 he got a masters degree in philosophy. After he did that he decided to instead study law. That aspiration only lasted for 2 years until 1734. He now wanted to become a writer. From this point on he was going to earn a living on writing and translating books and occasionally tutoring the rich kids. He did this for a while translating books like Syanyan's History of Grece, Robert James's Medical Dictionary, Shaftsbury's Inquiry Concerning Virtue and Meit, and many more. In 1743 he married Anne Toinette Champion. They only had one surviving child that they named Angelique. Diderto had to sell part of his library in order to pay for her marrage. In 1746 he was named the head editor of an Encyclopedia called Universal dictionay of arts and sciences. He was translating it into french. It was a very long encyclopedia. During the day he studied all that he could and then he would write it down all night. He worked so hard that he damaged his eyes so bad that he could barely see. He did not directly translate the book. He added his own opinion into the book. This addition was not liked by the upper class. They believed that the poor do not deserve to be educated. This Encyclopedia allowed the common person to know anything that they wanted about the world. This allowed the lower class to become educated. The upper class did not want this because they believed that if the lower class became smarter then they would start to question why they have almost no power and why the upper class got to make all of the laws. Just after Diderot finished the second volume of his Enclclopedia the courts decided to suspend the book in 1752. Diderot was taken to his house and police officers searched for the manuscripts that he was using to write the book. They found nothing because Diderot hid them at his friend Chretien de Lamoignon Maleshebes's house. This is quite ironic because Maleshebe was the one that ordered the search in the first place. He was still loyal to the monarchy but he liked that average people could get this book. After this Diderot worked on the Encyclopedia for the next 5 years. He lost many friends and gained many enimies. In 1757 the government of the French which at the time was the aristocracy stated that the encyclopedia was the work of a bunch of government conspireritors. They believed that it was an extreme threat to the government because it took advantage of the justices of things like freedom of thought, religious toleration, and the value of science and industry. In 1759 the encyclopedia was formally supressed. At this point Diderot was for the most part on his own in writing this book because all of his co workers and all of the colleges had dropped out because the book now had a very bad reputation.over the next 6 years he still continued his work. He was constantally harassed by threats of police raids. In 1765 he realized that the bookseller had taken out all that he considered dangerious from the proof sheets after they had left Diderot's hands. This caused Diderot's work to not be completed until 1772.