---
title: "Encyclopédie"
chunk: 5/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclopédie"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T04:36:33.670090+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Overall scope ===
The Encyclopédie was narrower in scope than nineteenth- and twentieth-century encyclopedias (which covered history lavishly), and much narrower in scope than Wikipedia (which also covers popular culture lavishly). Like the Cyclopaedia, its model, it was a dictionary of the arts and sciences – or, rather, to quote its subtitle, a dictionary of the sciences, arts, and crafts. In contemporary parlance, dictionaries of the arts and sciences were often contrasted with historical dictionaries, the former concentrating on areas of knowledge that could be understood as rational systems, the latter concentrating on contingent facts.  Dictionaries of the arts and sciences had been encroaching on historical knowledge since their beginnings in the late seventeenth century, and the process continued with the Encyclopédie, which covered geography more thoroughly than the Cyclopaedia or any previous dictionary of the arts and sciences. It covered history only patchily, however, and the omission reflected not simply an oversight but a conviction that historical knowledge belonged in a different kind of work.
In the article 'Encyclopédie', Diderot wrote that “the purpose of an encyclopedia is to bring together knowledge scattered across the surface of the earth.”
At the beginning of the work, neither Diderot nor D’Alembert planned for biographical articles, thinking them extraneous to a dictionary of the arts and sciences. The omission was apparently criticized, for the editors defended their position in volume 3. Soon afterward, declaring independence, it would seem, from a policy he disagreed with, Jaucourt began introducing biographies of individuals in geographical articles in volume 6. Normally he placed the biographies in articles on the subjects’ places of birth, though at times he used places where they had flourished or died. Such biographies proliferated and came to dominate many geographical articles. The articles on the towns of Pau, Stratford, and Wolstrope, for example, were devoted almost entirely to the lives of Henry IV, William Shakespeare, and Isaac Newton, respectively. The Supplément to the Encyclopédie, run by a new editor, allowed for biographical articles under the subject’s own name, which avoided some of the inconveniences of Jaucourt’s system.
From the beginning, the Encyclopédie covered the science of grammar, but it was not intended to be a dictionary of the French language. As the work progressed, however, Diderot became more concerned about the role of language in the transmission of knowledge, and he began to include articles on ordinary language.

=== Religion ===
Some contributors to the Encyclopédie wrote about religion in an orthodox way, notably Edmé-François Mallet. By contrast, some challenged religious authority, locating religion within a system of reason and philosophy, and some doubted the reality of events in the Bible or questioned the existence of miracles such as the Resurrection.
To defend themselves from controversy, heterodox contributors often left their articles anonymous, hid criticism in obscure articles, or expressed it in ironic terms. At times, nonetheless, they openly attacked the Catholic Church, criticizing, for example, monasteries, the "excess" of religious festivals, or the celibacy of the clergy.

=== Politics and society ===
The Encyclopédie helped disseminate some of the Enlightenment's political theories. In famous articles such as "Political Authority," Diderot and other authors traced political authority back to ordinary people and away from divinity or princely lineages. This Enlightenment ideal, espoused by Rousseau and others, gave people the right to consent to their government in a kind of social contract.
Another component of the Encyclopédie's politics was advocacy for personal or natural rights. Articles such as "Natural Rights" by Diderot explored the relationship between individuals and the general will. To balance this relationship, humanity requires civil society and laws that benefit everyone. In varying degrees, contributors to the Encyclopédie criticized Thomas Hobbes' notions of a selfish humanity in need of a sovereign to rule over it.
On the matter of slavery, the Encyclopédie was, characteristically, ambivalent. While some authors reported on slavery matter-of-factly or even defended it, Jaucourt mounted an attack on the institution in his article "Slave Trade" ("Traite des nègres").
In economics, the Encyclopédie expressed favor for laissez-faire ideals or principles of economic liberalism. Articles on economics or markets, such as "Political Economy," generally favored competition and denounced monopolies, including guilds. Some contributors proposed extending laissez-faire principles beyond traditional markets, allowing, for example, schools to be privatized and careers opened to anyone.

=== Technology ===
The Encyclopédie was a vast compendium of knowledge, notably on the period's technology, the so-called mechanical arts. At the start of the project, Diderot had hoped to collect information on the mechanical arts by visiting workshops and interviewing artisans. Sometimes he did so, but in the end, much of the work's information on technology was taken from experts and books, notably the Descriptions des Arts et Métiers. Appearing as it did in the dawning Industrial Revolution, the Encyclopédie may come across as dated in its appreciation of technology, but some of the technology it overlooks (for example, the production of coke-smelted iron) was still little-known outside of Britain and Holland.