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the Encyclopédistes as Individuals

18-23 minutes

Alembert, Jean Le Rond d' (1717-1783) , the co-editor of the Encyclopédie fro
prolific contributor of articles, which are designated by the symbol 'O'.

The circumstances of his birth left him unencumbered by sentimental or familialties to a

He was the illegitimate offspring of aristocratic parents. His mother, the marquise de Ten
abandoned him a few hours after he was born. He was found in a wooden box on the step
of Saint-Jean-le-Rond, hence his baptismal name Jean Le Rond. His father, the chevalier
Destouches-Canon, a lieutenant-general in the French artillery, acted less irresponsibly.
acknowledged the child as his own, but saw to it that the infant did not perish from negle
him brought up by the wife of a glazier. He also paid for the child's education from the ag
small boarding school (pension) run by a certain Bérée and at the Jansenist Collège des Q
entered in 1730. Although the Destouches family registered him at the collège as Jean-Ba
soon called himself Jean d'Alembert. A brilliant student, he was encouraged by his teache
ecclesiastical career, but he rejected that advice. After receiving the degree of master of a
law, which he disliked and never practised, though he did receive his law degree from the
1738 and became a barrister (avocat). Then he enrolled at the Paris Faculty of Medicine f
considered the study of medicine even less satisfying than theology or law.

Finally, from 1739 on he concentrated on mathematics, a subject which had interested hi

found his métier. By 1741 he had submitted six papers to the Paris Académie royale des s
appointed assistant member (adjoint). His great Traité de dynamique, which introduced
motion and helped systematise the science of mechanics, was published in 1743. The nex
l'équilibre et du mouvement des fluides appeared. In 1745 he was promoted to the rank o
Académie des sciences and awarded a pension of 500 livres; then in 1746 he was made as

In about the same year he began to frequent the salons of Paris. D'Alembert, although sen
illegitimate birth, was well suited for this new life. Despite an unprepossessing appearanc
pitched voice, a tiny build, and rather plain features – he became a sought-after guest. Hi
talent for mimicry devastating, and his conversation amusing and spirited. A daily patter
mornings largely spent on reading and research, the afternoons and evenings in society.
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The next ten years were the most prolific of his life. His scientific publications included th
sur la cause générale des vents (1747), which innovated in the use of partial differential e
sur la précession des équinoxes (1749), which helped solve a mathematical problem that
Essai d'une nouvelle théorie de la résistance des fluides (1752), which pioneered in hydro
multi-volume Recherches sur différens points importans du système du monde (1754-17
lunar movement. These works, as well as earlier ones, show that d'Alembert was clearly o
mathematicians and physicists of his century. In 1756 he was promoted to the rank of sup
in the Académie des sciences.

He also aspired to being a man of letters. Among the earliest contributors to the Encyclop
on 17 December 1745 in the account book of the publishers. Probably one of them, Miche
publisher of some of his scientific works, or Jean-Paul de Gua de Malves, a fellow mathem
first editor of the Encyclopédie, recruited him. For a time, d'Alembert assisted Gua de Ma
October 1747, two months after Gua de Malves's resignation, Diderot and he were appoin
D'Alembert's pay and duties were lighter; yet this did not deter him from devoting himse
enterprise. An exceptional editor, he recruited zealously among colleagues, friends, and a
responsible for the parts on mathematics, physics, astronomy, and music,1 he conscientio
and contributed much of his own work in these areas. Some of his articles were outstandi
treatment of mathematics, for example, René Taton thinks only Euler could have done be
confining his collaboration to a few subjects, d'Alembert went beyond the obligations of h
preliminary discourse in volume i is the literary work he is best known for nowadays, and
as 'Collège' and 'Genève' helped give the Encyclopédie its reputation as a weapon against

While d'Alembert edited the Encyclopédie, he also published Elémens de musique --4--
suivant les principes de M. Rameau (1752), a skilful and influential popularisation of Jea
harmonie theories, and Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie (first edition
includes an Essai sur la société des gens de lettres et des grands calling for men of letters
truth, to avoid servile dependence on aristocratic protectors. By 1754 d'Alembert had ach
as a mathematician, but also as a literary figure. That year, aided by the socially influenti
he was elected to the Académie française; she had campaigned vigorously on behalf of he
her salon.

Unfortunately, some of d'Alembert's publications brought him troubles as well as honour

antagonising Rameau and, in the Encyclopédie and elsewhere, presented a generally favo
that composer's musical accomplishments. Nevertheless, Rameau wrote Erreurs sur la m
l'Encyclopédie (1755) and other works critical of d'Alembert's and Rousseau's contributio
Encyclopédie.4 Furthermore, d'Alembert's activities as an Encyclopedist resulted in his b
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of undermining the foundations of religion.5 This infuriated him. He threatened to leave
and finally did so in 1758-1759. After his unorthodox article 'Genève' offended Calvinists
disheartened because the French government tightened censorship and seemed to be fav
the work. His defection caused a break in his friendship with Diderot, especially because
d'Alembert was acting in a cowardly fashion and was also conspiring with other Encyclop
Morellet, and Turgotto have the Encyclopédie published in Prussia. Even earlier the relat
and d'Alembert had been strained. D'Alembert was more of a perfectionist as an editor an
presentation more than subtlety. Diderot seems to have regarded some of d'Alembert's co
unnecessarily belligerent. In addition, each of them was touchy, self-righteous, given to e
convinced of his intellectual excellence. To make matters worse, they held different ideas
science, philosophy, and other subjects.

D'Alembert became more cautious after he had resigned as editor of the Encyclopédie. N
publish several books of philosophy6 and a critical appraisal of the Jesuits and Jansenist
destruction des jésuites en France (1765). He also took a risk when he resumed his writin
in 1759. This time he tried to avoid controversy by concentrating on scientific articles. Th
began to collaborate again was that he needed money. His pensions from the French and
had been stopped during the Seven Years War.

D'Alembert became much better off financially by the mid-1760s. Promoted to pensionar
sciences after the death of Clairaut in 1765, he --5-- received a yearly stipend of 2,400 livr
pension, however, was delayed several months. Certain royal officials, perhaps even the K
suspicion.) His other income at the time included some funding from the Académie franç
annuity of 1,200 livres left him by his father in 1726, a pension of 1,200 livres from Louis
amount from Frederick II, and an annuity of 600 livres from madame Geoffrin.7 Still, d'A
his shortage of money as well as his fear of persecution, when his friend Voltaire in their
continued to exhort him to ever bolder actions and writings.

Despite these feelings of insecurity, d'Alembert had refused to accept two extremely flatte
offers, because he believed they might compromise his independence. One was from Fred
first met the Prussian monarch in 1755, although his scientific work had been recognised
He had won a prize from the Berlin Académie royale des sciences et belles-lettres in 1746
cause générale des vents and was elected to membership that same year. Frederick was s
from 1752 on he tried to convince d'Alembert to move to Prussia and become president o
D'Alembert repeatedly declined, but he and Frederick remained regular and intimate cor
until d'Alembert's death in 1783. Also, d'Alembert praised him in the article 'Dictionnaire
and elsewhere in the Encyclopédie and visited his court for three months in 1763.
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D'Alembert thought much less highly of Catherine II, even though in 1762 she offered him
livres per year for tutoring her heir, the Grand Duke Paul. Again d'Alembert declined and
reasons as he had refused Frederick. He feared a loss of his freedom and preferred econo
enjoying luxury in distant exile. It is perhaps ironic that d'Alembert, who was so careful t
dependence on such 'philosopher-kings' and was at times critical of their actions, still ten
reform of most, if not all, large countries would have to come from absolute monarchs aid
intellectuals. He had no faith in the judgement and competence of the masses.8 Also he d
the leaders of the nobility. On 26 October 1762 he complained to Voltaire about certain F
said that he wanted no part of 'la religion catholique, & même une grande partie de la nat
les classes du Parlement & la hiérarchie Ecclésiastique, aussi méprisables l'une que l'autr
Roi; & j'aime ma patrie, & je crois l'avoir prouvé aux dépens de ma fortune'.9

Another reason d'Alembert could not bear to leave Paris was his unwillingness to be sepa
Lespinasse. He had fallen in love with her when she was the companion of madame Du D
years of their --6-- liaison, they got along well, despite the fact that d'Alembert was fifteen
and that a possessive madame Du Deffand tried to destroy their close relationship. Finall
broke with the two in 1764. Mademoiselle de Lespinasse left madame Du Deffand's house
salon. A year later, d'Alembert became seriously ill and was persuaded to leave his foster-
apartment.10 After a short stay in the townhouse of his friend Claude-Henri Watelet, he
mademoiselle de Lespinasse. The extent of their intimacy remains unclear. Rousseau in h
uncharitably alludes to d'Alembert's impotence or homosexuality, but there is some evide
implication.11 In any event, d'Alembert's tender and patient attentions could not satisfy h
passionate love, and she had two tumultuous and upsetting affairs, one from 1767 to abou
de Mora, a Spanish officer, the other from 1774 to 1776 with the comte de Guibert, a Fren
theorist. D'Alembert managed not to learn of these 'infidelities' during her lifetime, but s
May 1776 he read Mora's letters to her and was shattered. He never found out about the a

No longer the mathematical genius he had been before 1755, in poor health since at least
indifference and then the death of his beloved, whose memory was tarnished, d'Alembert
and irritable by the 1770s. When Voltaire died in 1778, he became further dejected.12 The
d'Alembert's life were devoted mainly to his work for the Académie française. In 1772, de
Louis XV, he had been elected permanent secretary, a post that he fulfilled in a conscient
devoted manner. He actively promoted public interest in the meetings. In his eulogies of
further what he considered sound philosophy and religious reform, for he viewed the Aca
the unenlightened, just as he had seen his friendships with rulers and his work for the En

A sceptic in matters of metaphysics and religion, d'Alembert faced death with the same u
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that he had shown throughout his adult life: he declined to receive the last rites of the Ch
Paris would not allow any religious ceremony at his funeral, but did permit his burial in a

1. Music was considered a part of the mathematics section of the Encyclopédie. See Rous
i.680n. For d'Alembert's treatment of music in the Encyclopédie, see Alfred Richard Oliv
as critics of music (New York 1947), p.62-65, 101ff., 171-79, and passim.Go back to text

2. René Taton, 'Les mathématiques selon l'Encyclopédie', in L'Encyclopédie et le progrès

techniques, ed. Suzanne Delorme and René Taton (Paris 1952), p.55. --7-- Also, Pierre Hu
d'Alembert's articles on mathematics and mechanics, but points out that the Encyclopéd
exercé, dans le domaine astronomique, de grande influence, sauf peut-être de vulgarisati
'L'astronomie dans l'Encyclopédie', ibid., p.51.Go back to text

3. For a list of his signed and anonymous articles and his other written contributions to t
Schwab and Rex, Inventory 93, p.9-18; 223, p.457, 470. They amount to over 1,600 entri
wrote articles for the Supplément. See ibid. 93, p.257; and Kathleen Hardesty, The Suppl
Encyclopédie (The Hague 1977), esp. p.130-31.Go back to text

4. For different interpretations of Rameau's quarrel with d'Alembert, see Dennis F. Essar
epistomology, and aesthetics of Jean Lerond d'Alembert, Studies on Voltaire 159 (1976),
Oliver, esp. p.101-12.Go back to text

5. For examples of such accusations, see my biographical profiles of Lavirotte, Le Breton,

book.Go back to text

6. See Essai sur les élémens de philosophie, ou sur les principes des connoissances huma
1759) and Eclaircissemens sur différens endroits des élémens de philosophie (first publis
found in various editions of his Mélanges de littérature, d'histoire et de philosophie.Go b

7. By d'Alembert's death in 1783, his income had risen to some 22,000 livres annually.Go

8. To keep the masses under control, d'Alembert, like Voltaire, favoured a social religion,
church.Go back to text

10. During this illness, Diderot visited d'Alembert frequently, and this helped lead to a pa
back to text

11. Rousseau, Œuvres complètes, i.555. But see Michel Paty, D'Alembert et son temps: él
(Strasbourg 1977), p.36n., 37n.Go back to text

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12. According to the Mémoires secrets of 29 November 1778, d'Alembert promised to join
of Neuf Sœurs in order to attend its funeral ceremony honouring Voltaire and act as the r
Académie française. But many Academicians, fearful of antagonising Church and State, d
did not join. D'Alembert may have belonged to some Freemasonry lodge, for Herbert Lüt
maçon' of the Encyclopedist Louis Necker. Lüthy, La Banque protestante en France de la
Nantes à la Révolution (Paris 1959-1961), ii.229.Go back to text

Bibliography. Concerning d'Alembert's life in general, see Ronald Grimsley, Jean Le Ron
(1717-1783) (Oxford 1963); Michel Paty, D'Alembert et son temps: éléments de biograph
Gilles Maheu, 'La vie et l'œuvre de Jean d'Alembert: étude bio-bibliographique' (thesis, d
Faculté des lettres et sciences de l'Université de Paris, 1967, at Bibliothèque de la Sorbon
Jean d'Alembert: science and the Enlightenment (Oxford 1970); L. Lemoine [Marius Bar
Le Rond, dit d')', Dictionnaire de biographie française i (1933), cols. 1397-1416; J. Morto
Jean Le Rond d'', Dictionary of scientific biography i (1970), p.110-17; John N. Pappas,
(Bloomington, Indiana 1962); d'Alembert, 'Mémoires de d'Alembert, par lui-même', and
par lui-même, et adressé, en 1760, à madame ***', in Œuvres de d'Alembert (1821-1822;
i.1-12; and J. Christopher Herold, Love in five temperaments (New York 1961), chapter 1
and chapter 4 ('Mademoiselle de Lespinasse').

--8--

Concerning d'Alembert's relationship with the Encyclopédie and with Diderot generally,
well as Grimsley, esp. p.9-77; John Lough, Essays on the Encyclopédie of Diderot and d'A
1968), esp. p.230-51, and The Encyclopédie (London 1971), passim; John N. Pappas, 'Did
l'Encyclopédie', Diderot studies 4 (1963), p.191-208, 'La première suppression de l'Encyc
correspondance de d'Alembert', Recherches sur Diderot et sur l'Encyclopédie 1 (1986), p
et le Fils naturel', in Essays on Diderot and the Enlightenment in honor of Otis Fellows
(Geneva 1974), p.246-55; Arthur M. Wilson, Diderot (New York 1972), passim; Maheu, e
Hankins, esp. p.26-27, 66-103, 234-35; Frank A. Kafker (ed.), Notable encyclopedias of t
eighteenth centuries: nine predecessors of the Encyclopédie, Studies on Voltaire 194 (198
Diderot, Œuvres complètes, ed. Dieckmann et al., v.80-81; Emile Lizé (ed.), 'Mémoires in
Catherine II', Dix-huitième siècle 10 (1978), p.217-18; and Edgar Mass (ed.), Le Marquis
correspondance inédite d'un ami des philosophes à la cour de Bayreuth, Studies on Volt
74-79.

For further research, see Anne-Marie Chouillet, 'Travaux récents sur d'Alembert', Dix-hu
p.197-203; and John N. Pappas, 'Inventaire de la correspondance de d'Alembert', Studies

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p.131-276.

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