Denis Diderot: The Prominent Figure Of The Enlightenment

Denis Diderot, the prominent figure of the Enlightenment, was a French philosopher, an artist, and a writer. Diderot compiled many of the ideas spread around during the Enlightenment into one book, the Encylopedie. Diderot was one of the key figures of the Enlightenment which occurred during the 18th century. On July 24, 1749, Diderot was arrested and placed in solitary confinement in the Vincennes. On November 3, 1749 he was released from the Vincennes. He was arrested because the government was receiving resentment toward the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle and the government decided to imprison Diderot. Two years later Diderot and his co-editor were hired to translate an English Encyclopedia, when they finished, they renamed it the Encyclopedie.
The Encyclopedie was published in 28 volumes from 1751 to 1772. The Encyclopedie was a literary and philosophical work and created social and intellectual effects. It caused many problems with the government and Church because he wasn’t afraid of showing his disagreement towards them. The King needed the Church to remind these people of the biblical concept known as the Divine Right of Kings and the Church wanted the King to keep its immense holdings tax free. The Church and the Monarchy worked together because if either was weakened so ere the other. They believed the knowledge held in the Encyclopedie would bring people to doubt about what they are believing in. Diderot moved around often, because he had developed a fear that knowledge would be destroyed by the Christians. The Christians believed if they had developed an unorthodox thought then it must be destroyed. To prevent the destruction of the Encyclopedie he had moved around France and distributed it all across France so people would spread the knowledge. Diderot only wrote about 1000 articles of the Encyclopedie while the others were submitted by scholars across the world.