On "Encyclopédie"
New Books in Western European Studies
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The Dream of the Enlightenment
In 17 84, the prussian german philosopher emmanuel kant wrote a short essay called answering the question, what is enlightenment? Kant says, you have to dare to know things on your own. This was the dream of the enlightenment, to build a society on reason and knowledge, rather than faith and dogma. Didero and dalambert strove to dismantle the power of authority and give the power instead to the individual. In other words, i think they realized that every subject has behind it a multiplicity of knowledges that are necessary to be drawn upon.
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