# Denis Diderot

- Id: `diderot`
- Canonical url: `https://prokopton42.com/en/thinkers/diderot/`
- Language: `en`
- Editorial status: `research_in_progress`
- Content checksum: `712a2c3cae3c9675af2dd8a440c98c5cce3b514fccccfc8549d4411bf3362e36`

## Summary

Writer, editor and experimental thinker, Diderot tests ideas against bodies, crafts, theatre and conversation. His work resists closed systems and asks what knowledge changes when it becomes collective.

## The central idea

Ideas change when knowledge meets craft, experiment, and voices that challenge inherited order.

## Overview

This profile documents preparatory research. It does not mean that the voice is already allowed to speak.

## Lifespan

```json
{
    "display": "1713-1784",
    "era": "Early modern period",
    "distance": "242–313 years ago",
    "age_at_death": 71
}
```

## Intellectual tradition

```json
{
    "id": "modern-philosophy",
    "name": "Modern and contemporary philosophy",
    "detail": "Enlightenment, materialism and encyclopedic thought",
    "labels": [
        "Modern and contemporary philosophy",
        "Enlightenment, materialism and encyclopedic thought"
    ]
}
```

## Historical cutoff

```json
{
    "year": null,
    "display": null,
    "reason": ""
}
```

## Statistics

```json
{
    "works": 0,
    "passages": 0,
    "languages": [],
    "intellectual_exposures": 0,
    "typed_relationships": 0
}
```

## Historical landmarks

```json
[
    {
        "kind": "place",
        "title": "Langres",
        "period": "1713",
        "description": "Birthplace and early education.",
        "fact_status": "attested",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_label": "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "kind": "place",
        "title": "Paris",
        "period": "1728-1773; 1774-1784",
        "description": "Study, writing, editing of the Encyclopédie, and final residence.",
        "fact_status": "attested",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_label": "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "kind": "place",
        "title": "Vincennes",
        "period": "1749",
        "description": "Imprisoned after publication of the Letter on the Blind.",
        "fact_status": "attested",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_label": "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "kind": "place",
        "title": "Saint Petersburg",
        "period": "1773-1774",
        "description": "Documented visit to Russia after Catherine II purchased his library.",
        "fact_status": "attested",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_label": "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    }
]
```

## Temperament review

```json
{
    "profile_id": "denis-diderot-temperament-v1",
    "overall_confidence": "C",
    "confidence_meaning": "convergence of primary text and near-contemporary testimony",
    "observation_count": 1,
    "source_count": 1,
    "basis": "Research profile grounded in works and correspondence under admission. It describes a way of arguing, not private psychology."
}
```

## Places

```json
[
    {
        "name": "Langres",
        "period": "1713",
        "description": "Birthplace and early education.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Paris",
        "period": "1728-1773; 1774-1784",
        "description": "Study, writing, editing of the Encyclopédie, and final residence.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Vincennes",
        "period": "1749",
        "description": "Imprisoned after publication of the Letter on the Blind.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    },
    {
        "name": "Saint Petersburg",
        "period": "1773-1774",
        "description": "Documented visit to Russia after Catherine II purchased his library.",
        "confidence": "A",
        "source_url": "https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/diderot/"
    }
]
```