Diderot Denis (1713–84), French philosopher, Encyclopedist, dramatist, novelist, and art critic, a champion of Enlightenment values. He is known primarily as general editor of the Encyclopedia (1747–73), an analytical and interpretive compendium of eighteenth-century science and technology. A friend of Rousseau and Condillac, Diderot translated Shaftesbury’s Inquiry Concerning Virtue (1745) into French. Revealing Lucretian affinities (Philosophical Thoughts, 1746), he assailed Christianity in The Skeptics’ Walk (1747) and argued for a materialistic and evolutionary universe (Letter on the Blind, 1749); this led to a short imprisonment.
Diderot wrote mediocre bourgeois comedies; some bleak fiction (The Nun, 1760); and two satirical dialogues, Rameau’s Nephew (1767) and Jacques the Fatalist (1765–84), his masterpieces. He innovatively theorized on drama (Discourse on Dramatic Poetry, 1758) and elevated art criticism to a literary genre (Salons in Grimm’s Literary Correspondence). At Catherine II’s invitation, Diderot visited Saint Petersburg in 1773 and planned the creation of a Russian university.
Promoting science, especially biology and chemistry, Diderot unfolded a philosophy of nature inclined toward monism. His works include physiological investigations, Letter on the Deaf and Dumb (1751) and Elements of Physiology (1774–80); a sensationalistic epistemology, On the Interpretation of Nature (1745); an aesthetic, Essays on Painting (1765); a materialistic philosophy of science, D’Alembert’s Dream (1769); an anthropology, Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville (1772); and an anti-behavioristic Refutation of Helvétius’ Work ‘On Man’ (1773–80). See also ENCYCLOPEDI. J.-L.S.