Denis Diderot
1713 CE–1784 CE · Philosopher · Langres
Denis Diderot was a French Enlightenment philosopher, writer, and art critic. From 1747 he served as chief editor of the Encyclopédie, the multi-volume reference work compiled with Jean le Rond d'Alembert that aimed to gather human knowledge; steering it to completion in 1772 against censorship consumed much of his life. He also wrote philosophical dialogues, fiction (including Rameau's Nephew and The Nun), essays on drama, and pioneering criticism of the Paris art Salons. A materialist thinker, he explored questions of perception, biology, and ethics. In 1773–1774 he traveled to Saint Petersburg as guest of Empress Catherine II, who had purchased his library. He died in Paris in 1784.
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Langres
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The world in their lifetime
Thinkers, teachers, and rulers whose lives overlapped with Denis Diderot’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Luminaries & Explorers world
- Georg Philipp Telemann· 1681 CE–1767 CE
- George Frideric Handel· 1685 CE–1759 CE
- George Berkeley· 1685 CE–1753 CE
- Johann Sebastian Bach· 1685 CE–1750 CE
- Montesquieu· 1689 CE–1755 CE
- Voltaire· 1694 CE–1778 CE
- Henry Fielding· 1707 CE–1754 CE
- Samuel Johnson· 1709 CE–1784 CE
- David Hume· 1711 CE–1776 CE
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau· 1712 CE–1778 CE
- Christoph Willibald Gluck· 1714 CE–1787 CE
- Cao Xueqin· 1715 CE–1763 CE
- Adam Smith· 1723 CE–1790 CE
- Immanuel Kant· 1724 CE–1804 CE
- James Cook· 1728 CE–1779 CE
- Edmund Burke· 1729 CE–1797 CE
- Joseph Haydn· 1732 CE–1809 CE
- Edward Gibbon· 1737 CE–1794 CE
- Thomas Paine· 1737 CE–1809 CE
- Cesare Beccaria· 1738 CE–1794 CE
- Alexander Hamilton· 1755 CE–1804 CE
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart· 1756 CE–1791 CE
- Robert Burns· 1759 CE–1796 CE
- Mary Wollstonecraft· 1759 CE–1797 CE
Jewish world
Scientists
Islamic world
Christian world
Rulers world
- Maria Theresa· 1717 CE–1780 CE
- Frederick the Great· 1712 CE–1786 CE
- Hyder Ali· 1720 CE–1782 CE
- Mustafa III· 1717 CE–1774 CE
- Charles III of Spain· 1716 CE–1788 CE
- Peter III· 1728 CE–1762 CE
- Ivan VI· 1740 CE–1764 CE
- Karim Khan Zand· 1705 CE–1779 CE
- Qianlong Emperor· 1711 CE–1799 CE
- Pontiac (Obwandiyag)· 1714 CE–1769 CE
- Abdulhamid I· 1725 CE–1789 CE
- Elizabeth (Elizabeth Petrovna)· 1709 CE–1762 CE
- Yeongjo of Joseon· 1694 CE–1776 CE
- Catherine the Great· 1729 CE–1796 CE
Works
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