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Prospectus

Denis Diderot

出版	Marchen Press
主題	Philosophy / Metaphysics
ISBN	36893861609783689386160
URL	http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=HdxYEQAAQBAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
EBook	SAMPLE

註釋

Prospectus as the initial manifesto or introduction to the Encyclopédie, laying out the aims and guiding principles of the monumental project he co-edited with d’Alembert. In the Prospectus, Diderot emphasized the Enlightenment goals of disseminating knowledge, challenging ignorance, and promoting reason and human progress. It was later expanded into the more detailed "Discours préliminaire" (Preliminary Discourse) in 1751. In 1750 Diderot issued a rousing Prospectus that heralded one of the Enlightenment’s greatest enterprises: the creation of the Encyclopédie. This prospectus is part announcement, part visionary essay—a three-paragraph declaration that crystallizes the ambitions of an age. Written in confident, stirring prose, it invites readers and patrons into an audacious project to compile all human knowledge and make it accessible. The first paragraph boldly unveils the scope: Diderot describes a comprehensive dictionary of sciences, arts, and crafts, complete with numerous volumes and detailed illustrations. He strikes a practical tone, reassuring the public that the manuscripts are prepared and the work is well underway, while simultaneously conveying the electrifying magnitude of the endeavor. Diderot, in an almost conversational yet impassioned manner, expounds why such an encyclopedia matters. He notes the spread of general enlightenment and how previous dictionaries of knowledge aided that cause, but he argues that a new, more integrated approach is needed. By reducing everything to a “dictionary form,” he explains, the Encyclopédie will not only present facts but reveal the interconnections among them. For a modern reader, this Prospectus is intellectually thrilling. It reads as the blueprint for Wikipedia’s 18th-century ancestor but couched in elegant French rhetoric. It emphasizes collaboration (the project enlisted many contributors), dissemination of knowledge for both the learned and the self-taught, and the democratization of information. All of this is delivered in a tone that is academic in its precision but accessible in its clarity. One does not need prior knowledge of the period to feel the excitement in Diderot’s words; the Prospectus communicates a universal message: knowledge empowers, and by uniting it in one work, we empower all who seek to learn. This edition contains a new Afterword by the translator, a short biography, a glossary of Philosophical Terms used by Diderot, a chronology of his core life and works, and a summary index of all of Diderot's works. With a clean, modern translation of Diderot's Enlightenment-era French, this edition brings Diderot's thoughts directly into the modern intellectual sphere, tracing the intellectual forces which swept along Diderot and impacted today's secular sphere.