Blogging as Modern Enlightenment: Lessons from Diderot's Encyclopédie
By
herbertl
Pulled from the oven just right. Trustworthy, fact-dense, deeply satisfying.
Summary
The article draws parallels between Denis Diderot's monumental 18th-century Encyclopédie project and modern blogging, arguing that both represent intellectual labor in challenging environments. Diderot faced government bans, church condemnation, collaborator abandonment, publisher censorship, and personal breakdowns over 28 volumes spanning two decades. The piece challenges romanticized views of the Enlightenment as an 'intellectual garden party' and suggests that contemporary blogging, despite its challenges, continues this tradition of knowledge dissemination against obstacles.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledIn 1751, Denis Diderot began publishing his Encyclopédie, a project that would eventually span 28 volumes and take more than two decades to complete.
The French government banned it twice. The Catholic Church condemned it, Diderot's collaborators abandoned him, his publisher secretly censored entries behind his back, and he worked himself into periodic breakdowns trying to finish the damn thing.
When people talk about the Enlightenment as if it were an intellectual garden party where everyone sipped wine and agreed about reason, they're missing the part where producing and distributing ideas was hard, dangerous work.
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