How could a single man, in the short span of his life, manage to comprehend and develop the universal system of nature and art? Whereas the numerous scientific community of La Crusca spent forty years constituting its vocabulary, and whereas our French Academicians had labored for sixty years on their dictionary, before producing its first editon! Yet what is the dictionary of a language? What is a lexicon, even executed as well as it can be? A precise collection of the articles to be filled in by an encyclopedic and analytical dictionary. When one considers the immense material for an encyclopedia, the only thing one perceives distinctly is that it cannot be the work of a single man. They shall have as sole reply this passage from Chancellor Bacon, which seems to address them specifically: De impossibilitate itá flatuo et omnia possibilia et praestabilia esse censenda quae ab aliquibus perfici possunt, licét non á quibusvis et quae á multis conjunctim, licét non ab uno et quae in successione saeculorum, licét non eodem aevo et denique quae multorum curâ et sumptf, licét non opibus et industriâ singulorum. See the most recent edition of the Dictionnaire de Trévoux, article Encyclopedia. For this reason some persons accustomed to judge the possibilities of an enterprise by the limited resources they recognize in themselves have pronounced that we will never bring ours to completion. It would have been difficult to propose a more extensive object than covering everything related to human curiosity, duty, needs, and pleasures. Indeed, the purpose of an encyclopedia is to collect knowledge disseminated around the globe to set forth its general system to the men with whom we live, and transmit it to those who will come after us, so that the work of preceding centuries will not become useless to the centuries to come and so that our offspring, becoming better instructed, will at the same time become more virtuous and happy, and that we should not die without having rendered a service to the human race. This word signifies chain of knowledge it is composed of the Greek preposition ἐν, in, and the nouns κύκλος, circle, and παιδεία, knowledge. Originally published as "Encyclopédie," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 5:635–648A (Paris, 1755).Įncyclopedia. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2002. "Encyclopedia." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. of "Encyclopédie," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. Please see for information on reproduction.ĭiderot, Denis. This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission.
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