Denis Diderot is best remembered as the general editor and main contributor of the Encyclopédie, and as a prominent figure of the Enlightenment.
Diderot was born at Langres on October 5th 1713. He was a brilliant student and enrolled in the Jesuit, as he was decided by others that he should serve the church. However, he was uninterested in religion and gave attention to numerous other studies, including languages, theatre, literature, philosophy, and mathematics. Diderot ended earning a master of arts degree in philosophy during university, and abandoned religion as a career. He refused to enter the clergy, and also declined his father’s wishes for him to study law or medicine. Instead, he became a bookseller and spent his years as a bookseller, tutor, and a translator.
In 1745, André François le Breton hired Diderot for the translation of an English Encyclopedia, Ephraim Chambers's two-volume Cyclopaedia. He and Jean Le Rond D'Alembert, a distinguished mathematician, expanded the translation into a literary and philosophical work for radical and revolutionary opinions, called the Encyclopédie. The Encyclopédie was published in 28 volumes from 1751 to 1772, and contained strong atheistic articles that brought enraged reactions from some readers and the church. Besides the Encyclopédie, he also wrote novels, short stories and plays which radical views and criticism on society delayed their publishing.
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