ABSTRACT
In 1755 the French philosopher Denis Diderot published his article "Encyclopedia" in the fifth volume of a work he was then editing with the mathematician Jean le Rond d'Alembert. One of the basic aims of the Encyclopedia is empiricist. Diderot and his original collaborator, d'Alembert, make much of the fact that in contrast to older works, the Encyclopedia would in important ways constitute a primary study of its objects. Diderot and his coeditor d'Alembert register the shock of the new in different ways. D'Alembert responds mainly to the blinding speed with which books become obsolete. Alphabetical order, Diderot admits, is a kind of disorder. But according to Diderot, the disorder of the Encyclopedia is not so unlike the disorder one finds and sometimes appreciates in the world. Looking backward, the success of Diderot's Encyclopedia is in so many ways remarkable. Centuries later the Encyclopedia still serves as a model for philosophical works of all sorts.
