Source: National Archives & Historic Records of Kingdom of France
Philosophy & Thought • Historical Archive • 🇫🇷 France • 0 views

Jean le Rond d'Alembert 🇫🇷

Jean Le Rond d'Alembert (Known as "d'Alembert")
Mathematician, Physicist, Philosopher, Co-Editor of the Encyclopédie with Diderot
Born Nov 16, 1717 🇫🇷 Paris, France
Passed Away Oct 29, 1783 Paris, Kingdom of France
Lifespan 65 years old
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"Reason, enlightened by experiment, is the only sovereign guide of the human intellect."

Archival Overview

Foremost French mathematician, physicist, and Enlightenment philosopher who co-founded and co-edited the monumental Encyclopédie alongside Denis Diderot, and formulated d'Alembert's principle in fluid mechanics.

Biographical Record

An abandoned foundling infant discovered on the steps of the church of Saint-Jean-le-Rond in Paris, he was raised by a glazier's wife. He showed extraordinary mathematical genius, being elected to the Académie des Sciences at age twenty-four.

In 1743, he published his Traité de dynamique, formulating d'Alembert's principle reducing dynamical problems to statics. He wrote the famous 'Discours préliminaire' (1751) of the Encyclopédie, organizing human knowledge according to reason, memory, and imagination, and served as Permanent Secretary of the Académie Française.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial
Common burial ground of the parish of Saint-Germain-l'Auxerrois
Paris, France
GPS: 48.8594, 2.3411
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