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Preliminary Discourse to the Encyclopedia of Diderot expresses the hopes, dogmas, assumptions, and prejudices that have come to characterize the French Enlightenment. In this preface to the Encyclopedia, d'Alembert traces the history of intellectual progress from the Renaissance to 1751. Including a revision of Diderot's Prospectus and a list of contributors to the Encyclopedia, this edition, elegantly translated and introduced by Professor Richard Schwab, is one of the great works of the Enlightenment and an outstanding introduction to the philosophes.
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The Encyclopedia which we are presenting to the public is, as its title declares, the work of a society of men of letters. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The Encyclopedia which we are presenting to the public is, as its title declares, the work of a society of men of letters. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
I have owned a copy of the encyclopedia for more than a decade. Only now have i come accross its dicourse. First i read it in French on Chicago`s ARTFL and naturally i wanted to have it printed. Typically, the pages which deal with the origin of our knowledge were not printable, so i have ordered the discourse here, in English.
It is my feeling that the gist of the discourse remains untouched unless it is read in the language in which it was written. I doublechecked the English translation and could not find it faulty at all, but nevertheless i am more touched, more inspired by its original.
Somehow i feel that the translator, although he did a fairly good job, does lack a deeper understanding of what Diderot is trying to convey.
I consider Diderot to be one of the foremost visionaries and revolutionaries together with the chinese daoists such as Laozi and Zhuangzi. This discourse is a hermetic pearl, priceless and in the original as sharp as any light visble and invisible.
The english copy is somehow not substantial. I dare say that the quality of any lecture held in English nowadays is probably far below the quality which it could assume. Responsible for this is undoubtedly the state of physical and mental corruption which is being upheld by various physical agents who have become unable to sever their minds from the ruling wiring diagrams.
I am willing to pay for the translation the price asked but i am aware that it is my personal vanity which makes me do so.
Thanks to amazon for this space,
Oliver
It is my feeling that the gist of the discourse remains untouched unless it is read in the language in which it was written. I doublechecked the English translation and could not find it faulty at all, but nevertheless i am more touched, more inspired by its original.
Somehow i feel that the translator, although he did a fairly good job, does lack a deeper understanding of what Diderot is trying to convey.
I consider Diderot to be one of the foremost visionaries and revolutionaries together with the chinese daoists such as Laozi and Zhuangzi. This discourse is a hermetic pearl, priceless and in the original as sharp as any light visble and invisible.
The english copy is somehow not substantial. I dare say that the quality of any lecture held in English nowadays is probably far below the quality which it could assume. Responsible for this is undoubtedly the state of physical and mental corruption which is being upheld by various physical agents who have become unable to sever their minds from the ruling wiring diagrams.
I am willing to pay for the translation the price asked but i am aware that it is my personal vanity which makes me do so.
Thanks to amazon for this space,
Oliver
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
2 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Reason's raison d'etre: The Discourse
11 Jan 2008
Format:Paperback
The Encyclopedia of Diderot and d'Alembert, ancestor of all the others, was an attempt to arrange and systematize the knowledge developed in a scattered and fragmentary manner, on the ruins of the scholastic philosophy and the medieval encyclopedism.
D'Alembert wrote a preliminary discourse as justification of the work plan. The Encyclopedia suggested a genetic order of the knowledge, decided on the model of the Locke's empiricism, and followed a classification of the sciences, founded on the Bacon's Knowledge Tree (Memory/History, Reason/Philosophy and Imagination/Poetry).
The work was also a "reasoned dictionary of sciences, arts and trades" as it explained the general principles of every science and arts, both liberal and mechanics, and their most remarkable details.
The part of the Discourse that perhaps the reader will appreciate more, concerns the history of the progress of human thought: here the science is considered in the prospect of the modern civilization's making and triumph. Of particulat interest is the passage where D'Alembert honours Bacon and Descartes as forerunners of Enlightenment's Age and prophets of the intellectual freedom.
The Encyclopedia offered to the middle class a new cultural model, of laical approach, rationally determined, bound to experience and turned to real life. The Enlightenment's faith in reason/rationality and progress fed on revolutionary conquests of rising middle class ( even Marx and Engels had words of admiration for the bourgeois enterprise).
D'Alembert wrote a preliminary discourse as justification of the work plan. The Encyclopedia suggested a genetic order of the knowledge, decided on the model of the Locke's empiricism, and followed a classification of the sciences, founded on the Bacon's Knowledge Tree (Memory/History, Reason/Philosophy and Imagination/Poetry).
The work was also a "reasoned dictionary of sciences, arts and trades" as it explained the general principles of every science and arts, both liberal and mechanics, and their most remarkable details.
The part of the Discourse that perhaps the reader will appreciate more, concerns the history of the progress of human thought: here the science is considered in the prospect of the modern civilization's making and triumph. Of particulat interest is the passage where D'Alembert honours Bacon and Descartes as forerunners of Enlightenment's Age and prophets of the intellectual freedom.
The Encyclopedia offered to the middle class a new cultural model, of laical approach, rationally determined, bound to experience and turned to real life. The Enlightenment's faith in reason/rationality and progress fed on revolutionary conquests of rising middle class ( even Marx and Engels had words of admiration for the bourgeois enterprise).
2 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Who wouldn't want a book recommended by Friederich the Great
14 Jun 2000
Format:Paperback
The preliminary discourses are a surprisingly entertaining description of D'Alembert's ideas about knowledge and learning. This introduction to the great Encyclopedia of Diderot is an important work of the Enlightenment in itself.
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