DIDEROT: THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHER

DIDEROT: THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHER

Denis Diderot was born in 1713 in the pious town of Langres, France. He was the oldest surviving child of a family whose long tradition it was to make renowned cutlery. At the age of thirteen, he decided to leave school because he became impatient with his teachers. They weren't feeding him enough of the information he craved. He decided to join his father in the cutlery business. That lasted for four days. He simply described his family's trade as boring. Diderot decided impatience was better than boredom and returned to school at the local Jesuit college.
He became an Abbe in hopes of pursuing a religious career and assuming his uncle Vigneron's position as canon at the local church. When Diderot was fifteen Vigneron fell ill and died leaving his religious office to young Diderot. When the cathedral chapter would not allow such a young man to take the position and gave it to someone else, they crushed all chances of the Diderot family producing another religious man. Soon after, Denis Diderot left for Paris to resume his studies at the College d'Harcourt and Louis-le-Grand.
It was here in Paris, that Diderot became the great philosopher that we know today. He started his new life in Paris with little to no money at all. Diderot was poverty stricken and forced to survive any way he could. He often changed residences when he owed too much in overdue rent and concocted wild schemes for borrowing money. He was a tutor for a well-to-do fa...

DIDEROT: THE ENLIGHTENED PHILOSOPHER

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