Denis Diderot (1713-1784) and Jean le Rond d'Alembert (1717-1783)
Advocates of human knowledge and intellect, Denis Diderot and Jean d'Alembert were described as the founders of the modern encyclopedia. From the foreword of the first publication of the encyclopedias, Diderot and d'Alembert view the aggregation of human knowledge a way to combat the ignorance, myth, dogma and superstition inherited from the Middle Ages. Despite the disdain from the government, the set of encyclopedias was completed in 1765, and was compiled with works from leading philosophers, such as Marquis de Condorcet, Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. An example of the Encyclopédie’s influence on the revolution is shown in the discussion of Tahiti in one particular volume. Bougainville, an explorer who visited the island nation, commented about the lifestyles of the Tahitians, prompting Diderot and d'Alembert with an opportunity to criticize the institution of marriage. He called the French marriage immoral because of the reduced status of female possessions or objects. Attitudes among the French towards marriage and women, he held, gave rise to two unnecessary conditions: the plight of the fallen woman and the plight of the illegitimate child. The Encyclopédie was one of the primary vehicles by which the ideas of the Enlightenment spread across the European continent, as it was the first work to collect the knowledge and developments of the Enlightenment. As well, the encyclopedia attempted to present all of the accumulated knowledge of the Western world in one place and let readers formulate their own conclusions.