Introduction

Abstract

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) directed the writing of the enormous encyclopedia, or Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts, and Crafts (in seventeen volumes published from 1751 to 1772, plus eleven volumes of plates). In his article on the encyclopedia, Diderot states its general purpose for his 18th-century audience:

To collect all the knowledge scattered over the face of the earth, to present its general outlines and structure to the men with whom we live, and to transmit this to those who will come after us, so that the work of the past centuries may be useful to the following centuries, that our children, by becoming more educated, may at the same time become more virtuous and happier, and that we may not die without having deserved well of the human race. (Reported in Gendzier, 1967, p. xv)

We have a more limited objective in presenting this encyclopedia of Primary Prevention and Health Promotion to its 21st-century audience, even though it follows in the footsteps of many esteemed encyclopedias starting even before Diderot’s. To our knowledge, no one has attempted what we present here, a full spectrum of the best available knowledge for action in primary prevention.