Digging Up Diderot

I do not flatter myself into thinking that, when the great revolution comes, my name will still survive … But at least I will be able to tell myself that I contributed as much as possible to the happiness of my fellow man, and prepared, perhaps from afar, the improvement of their lot.
                                    —Diderot, Political Writings

 What is this will, what is this freedom of the man who’s dreaming?
                                                        —Diderot, D’Alembert’s Dream

There are at least two Diderots, both controversial, both remarkable Enlightenment figures. The first was a renowned philosophe and atheist associated with Voltaire and Rousseau but often thought their inferior in accomplishment. He was known chiefly as the major author and editor of the Encyclopédie—a revolutionary project of the eighteenth century—as well as a few plays and other works such as Philosophical Thoughts (1746), The Sceptic’s Walk (same year) and…