The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Encyclopedists

the authors of the French Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des metiers (published 1751–80). The Encyclopédie was conceived and edited by D. Diderot and J. D’Alembert. Its contributors included Voltaire, E. de Condillac, C. Helvétius, P. Holbach, J.-J. Rousseau, A. Turgot, G. Raynal, G. Buffon, and various progressive scholars, scientists, writers, and engineers.

The Encyclopedists differed in their philosophical and sociopolitical views. They included deists as well as materialists and atheists, and adherents of “enlightened absolutism” as well as advocates of the republican form of government. They did, however, share such characteristics as the desire to overcome the conservative principles of feudal society, hostility toward the clerical ideology, and the need to substantiate their rational world view. The Encyclopedists played an important role in the ideological preparation for the French Revolution, and their work fostered social and scientific progress. As spokesmen for the progressive ideas of their age, the Encyclopedists were persecuted by the feudal authorities and the clergy.

REFERENCES

Duprat, P. Les Encyclopédists, leurs travaux, leurs doctrines et leur influence. Paris, 1866.
Ducros, L. Les encyclopédistes. Paris, 1900.
Proust, J. Diderot et l’Encyclopédie. Paris, 1962.
Proust, J. L’Encyclopédie. Paris, 1965.

B. E. BYKHOVSKII

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References in periodicals archive

(88) Precisely the same sense of the utility of creation underlies the work of the encyclopedists. Building upon Paul's comment, for instance, Bartholomaeus Anglicus prefaces his On the Properties of Things by remarking that it is only possible for the human mind to be led to the contemplation of the immaterial celestial hierarchy through material things.

Geography is better than divinity: the Bible and medieval geographical thought

She then examines the work of the early encyclopedists, Diderot and d'Alembert.

The unfinished Enlightenment; description in the age of the encyclopedia

In view of this, her introduction might have benefited from a slightly more copious exegesis of Lacquer's hypothesis concerning the advent of onanism and its demonization, as spawn of the Enlightenment project, and bete noire of Encyclopedists and philosophers, such as Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

The Secret Vice: Masturbation in Victorian Fiction and Medical Culture

He demonstrates this unhesitating approach in the Prolegomena, which remind us that medieval encyclopedists' use of poetry rather than prose responds to a lack of separation between literature and science.

Marco Albertazzi. Enciclopedie medievali: Storia e stile di un genere

Inspired by the success of burgeoning modern science and bored by the pedantic study of ancient classical texts, Denis Diderot and the other French Encyclopedists thought it long past time to move on to new things.

The burden of the humanities: what use are the humanities? Even some scholars no longer seem sure. But at a time when bioengineering throws into question what it means to be human, the answer should be obvious

He and his fellow encyclopedists argue that if they realize their ambitious dream, they'll change the science of biology.

Biological moon shot: realizing the dream of a Web page for every living thing

(10) Subsequent linguists and encyclopedists in England and Holland have generally accepted Crawfurd's definition.

Who are the Alfuros?