Diderot and the Encyclopædists

Morley, John, 1838-1923Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 4.0
Word count
574K words
Chapters
58

Tags

English Originals Western Philosophy Historical ReappraisalPortrait GalleryCivic AwarenessIntellectual EnlightenmentWestern ThoughtMoral DilemmaAcademic MonographIntellectual CommentaryEclectic ReadingCultural Change

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Diderot and the Encyclopædists (Vol. 1 of 2) by John MorleyAuthor: Morley, John, 1838-1923,Language: English, Class: B: Philosophy, Psychology, Religion, Release Date: Feb 18, 2005

Editor's review

This is the first of the two volumes of John Morley's Diderot and the Encyclopædists, a classic biographical study in the field of philosophy and intellectual history. Writing as a British intellectual historian, Morley systematically traces Diderot's life and intellectual development and the compilation of the Encyclopédie, while also portraying the broader landscape of French thought in the Enlightenment. Its value lies not in curious anecdotes but in placing the figure within intellectual lineages and publishing history; the prose carries the steadiness and argumentative quality of nineteenth-century British review essays. For readers who wish to understand the inner workings of the Enlightenment, the history of the Encyclopédie's compilation, or the sources of Diderot's thought, this is an old-school scholarly work useful as both an introduction and an index. Readers should note its period standpoint and narrative tone, and should not take it as the latest scholarly conclusion but rather as a work of intellectual history with its own views and materials.

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Reading tips

  1. Begin with the table of contents and introduction to grasp Morley's framework and basic stance, then move into the specific chapters.
  2. Keep a chronology of names from Diderot and the Encyclopédists at hand for reference while reading, to reduce confusion over figures and threads.
  3. Read the book's judgments alongside today's standard histories of the Enlightenment, noting the differences of era.
  4. The English original can be read slowly with a dictionary; take notes on key passages rather than pressing for speed word by word.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52
  53. 53
  54. 54
  55. 55
  56. 56
  57. 57
  58. 58

FAQ

Is this book a work by Diderot himself? No. It is a scholarly work about Diderot and the Encyclopédists written by John Morley, a biographical and intellectual-historical study; Diderot's thought and the Encyclopédie are its subjects, not its author.
Will reading only the first volume leave it incomplete? This is the first of two volumes and covers the earlier part of Diderot's life and thought. Reading only the first volume gives the first half of the thread, but grasping the full argument requires continuing to the second volume.
How difficult is the English original? The book dates from the nineteenth century, with long English sentences, a strongly argumentative tone, and many French names and titles. Readers with some English foundation who are willing to look up words can manage it; those seeking easy reading may find it demanding.
Is this book suitable as an introduction to the Enlightenment? It can serve as a supplementary reader. It unfolds around Diderot and the Encyclopédists and offers a concrete thread, but its stance and materials bear the mark of the author's era; it is best read alongside a standard introductory history of the Enlightenment for comparison.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Morley, John, 1838-1923 Author

John Morley (1838–1923) was a British statesman, writer and biographer, though public information about the details of his life is limited. Thirty of his works are held in this collection, mainly in the fields of intellectual history and political biography. His three-volume Life of William Ewart Gladstone draws on detailed sources and a restrained style to trace the career of this British statesman, and is an important reference for understanding Victorian politics. He also wrote Diderot and the Encyclopaedists and Voltaire, studies of French Enlightenment figures and their thought. Essays in his Critical Miscellanies deal with the life of George Eliot and eighteenth-century France, showing his wide interests in literary criticism and historical writing. Overall, his work tends toward intellectual biography, with solid material and clear prose that is both scholarly and readable.