In 1745 the publisher Andre Le Breton asked Diderot to work on the French translation of Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia. Diderot undertook the task but changed profoundly the nature of the publication. He broadened the scope of the Cyclopaedia and turned it into an important organ of radical and revolutionary opinion. The Encyclopédie was to bring out the main principles and applications of every art and science. The underlying philosophy was rationalism and a qualified faith in the advancement of the human mind.
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