WIBCI the brightest minds of our time thought KNOWLEDGE was worth dying for?
According to Living the French Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment S1E3:
“One book embodied the project of the Enlightenment more than any other. It was called the Encyclopedia. This was a massive project. The Encyclopedia would run to 28 volumes: 17 volumes of text and 11 volumes of illustrations. It took over 20 years to complete, from 1751 into the 1770’s. Encyclopédie was the work of at least 139 authors and 66 artists; including; Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau and had over 72,000 entries.”
That is A LOT of authors, a boat load of artists, and two decades is a long time. Sick persistence. Crazy if you think about it.
Want to know what was crazier?
“The Encyclopedia had ambitious goals. If you look up the word ‘encyclopedia’, in the E volume, you would learn that this book aimed to ‘collect all the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth, to transmit this to those who will come after us, so that our children, by becoming more educated, may at the same time become more virtuous and happier’. But, this attempt to systematize knowledge on behalf of human progress was also illegal.”
- Crazier cause that this massive project was FOR POSTERITY. Could you imagine 205 authors and artists coming together in 2025 for nothing more than the fulfillment of future generations, aka, zero chance of movie/reality TV deal, no royalties, and no credit/subscribers/likes/fans/attention. They believed new knowledge could bring about progress and improve society.
- Crazier still cause not only are none of the over 200 people spending multiple decades of their lives on a project for zero financial return, but you could go to jail y’all. Not just any jail, but sixteenth century French Bastille jail…. where dying isn’t odd. The Encyclopedia’s main editor, Diderot, had already served time in prison for things he wrote. Not to mention the Encyclopedia was full of political/religious snubs; under Eucharist all that is written was the cross reference: (see Cannibalism). Therefore, all 72,000 entries had to be written in secret, smuggled out of France, published secretly in Switzerland, and smuggled back into France and throughout Europe.
Can you imagine risking your life for the good of humanity and zero personal gain? Can you imagine anyone? Would be cool if…
Last Updated on 11/17/2025 by Death of Hypatia Inc.
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