Locke and "Lockianism" in the Encyclopedie. Comparisons and intersections

Abstract

In the Discours préliminaire of the Encyclopédie D’Alembert does not hesitate to place Locke on the level of a «Newton of philosophy», as the inventor of a new metaphysics: «On peut dire qu’il créa la Métaphysique à peu-près comme Newton avoit créé the Physique» (Enc., I, p. xxvij). Metaphysics is conceived no longer as a Science of Being, but as a Physics of the ideas of the human mind. But this is not the only image that emerges from the kaleidoscope of figures, offered by the various contributions, as well as the famous (and authoritative) one of the co-director. Undoubtedly, the representation of an essentially «Pyrrhonian» philosopher in regards to Religion and Theology prevails, which intersects with that image of the inspirer of the various materialisms that run through the 17 volumes of the Dictionnaire raisonné. The comparison between these representations reveals a figure of a thinker who is not at all «moderate», or inspirer of the conservative Enlightenment (as claimed for example by J. I Israel, in Radical Enlightenment), but rather that of the (masked) «supporter» of the fringes more subversive of the French Enlightenment.