It may be somewhat post-mortem to admit him to membership in a research organization, but Denis Diderot (b. October 5, 1713 – d. July 31, 1784) certainly qualifies as a researcher of living traditions for his role in producing the iconic Encyclopédie. (1) The life and writings of this enlightenment figure are well documented, (2-4) and inform the work of the Society in several ways.

Encyclopédie

First, the Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, ( Encyclopedia, or a systematic dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts) produced between 1751 and 1780, is a landmark of “The Age of Reason,” and therefore important to the intellectual history of the West. It is also a treasure-trove of processes and manufactures detailing the tools and techniques of workshops and factories of the period.

Encyclopédie was not an isolated event. Diderot had been asked to produce an encyclopedia on the model of the Scottsman, Ephraim Chambers' English two-volume Cyclopaedi of 1728, and ultimately produced a much larger work of 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of engravings which had, by 1780, been reproduced in at least seven pirated editions . This effort implicitly questioned the authority of Church and State, and survives as a monument to human wit and wisdom. The work had competition from the Descriptions des Arts et Métiers, faites ou approuvées par messieurs de l'Académie Royale des Science, published by the Académie Royale des Sciences of Paris between 1761 and 1788. This is a series of 113 volumes and three supplements which provides details of handcraft and manufacturing of the period, and whose treatments are arguably of greater usefulness than those of the Diderot. (5)

Documentation of Processes

Interpreted intelligently, documents such as these are valuable for the study of processes and exemplify the value of encyclopedic projects to the preservation of knowledge. Their engravings are of such interest that they are still used to illustrate the crafts to which they refer, and Diderot’s remain available in print today. (6-9)

Categorization of Knowledge

The organizational method of the Diderot encyclopedia is of importance to this electronic information age. The “ systematic dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts” employed the "figurative system of human knowledge," sometimes known as the tree of Diderot and d'Alembert, which was a structure developed to represent the organization of knowledge itself based on categorization proposed earlier by the Englishman Francis Bacon. (10) The Baconian premise of an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry (which implied drawing knowledge from the natural world through experimentation, observation, and testing of hypotheses) subordinated faith and made religion itself a category. (11)

This questioning of the premises of the organization of knowledge finds its reflection in digital encyclopedia projects which offer the freedom to create, re-organize and restructure categories at will. In addition, interactive editing of content by users within a protocol which includes rotating editors, such as that practiced by the Wikipedia (12) redefines the role of the reader as not just an interpreter of, but as a contributor to content.

Praxis and Methodology (13)

Diderot’s Father was a cutler, and his Mother came from a family of tanners. He was acquainted with craftsmanship and the workshop environment having worked (evidently unsuccessfully), in his Father’s shop. He brought this frame of mind, and the organizational skills of a mathematician, to the many crafts he studied in producing articles for Encyclopédie. There have been advances in research methodology in the intervening centuries, including experimental phenomenology, multiple-perception analysis and the ladder of discourse, but the products of this clear mind focused on examining studio practices remain instructional as well as charming.

Notes

(1) Diderot, Denis & Jean Le Rond D'Alembert. Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, par une Société de Gens de Lettres. Mis en ordre & publié par M. Diderot, de l'Academie Royale des Sciences & des Belles-Lettres de Prusse & quant à la Partie Methematique, par M. D'Alembert... 35 vols. (All). (Text 1-17, plates 1-11, supplement 1-5, Table Analytique et Raisonnée 1-2). Paris & Neuchatel, 1751-80. Folio first edition.

(2) Enlightening the World: Encyclopédie, the Book that changed the Course of History, by Philip Blom, NY, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

(3) Diderot and the Encyclopaedists, by John Morley, 2 vols, London, 1923; volume 1 found at: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/15098

(4) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denis_Diderot

(5) Anecdotally, Diderot is claimed to have pilfered illustrations from the Descriptions for the Encyclopédie .

(6) Diderot Encyclopedia: The Complete Illustrations, Harry A Abraams, NY, 1978, 5 hardcover volumes

(7) L’ Encyclopédie Diderot et D’Alembert, Bibliotheque De L’Image, 40 paperback volumes

(8) A Diderot Pictorial Encyclopedia of Trades and Industry, edited by Charles C. Gillespie, Dover Puiblications, Inc., NY, 1959, 2 hardcover volumes

(9) Pictorial Encyclopedia of Science, Art and Technology, Diderot, D’Alembert, Readex Microprint Corporation, New York, NY, 1969, one hardcover volume

(10) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Figurative_system_of_human_knowledge

(11) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon

(12) http://www.wikipedia.org/

(13) The term Praxis originates with the Brazilian educator Paulo Freire, who described it as “reflection and action upon the world in order to transform it.” (1990, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, p.36). It holds that theory and practice are not binary opposites, but rather complementary.