(1717 – 1783)<\/p>\r\n\r\n
On November 17, 1717, in Paris, France, a son was born to Madame de Tencin, a former nun and the sister of a Roman Catholic cardinal, and her lover, the Chevalier Destouches\u2013Canon, an artillery officer. Because she was afraid that she would be forced to return to the convent if her brother discovered she had been pregnant while unmarried, she abandoned the infant on the night of his birth. She left him on the steps of the chapel of St. Jean Baptiste Le Rond, where he was found by a policeman on his rounds.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The child was christened Jean Le Rond (he later added the surname D\u2019Alembert, though why he did so is unknown), and was sent to live with foster parents, the Rousseaus. Eventually, Jean\u2019s biological father and mother made themselves known to him; Destouches\u2013Canon paid for his education and Madame de Tencin sought to win his affection, but the Rousseaus had D\u2019Alembert\u2019s love and loyalty. He lived with them for forty-seven years and supported them in their old age.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
D\u2019Alembert\u2019s genius was apparent when he was very young. At the age of twelve, he entered the Jansenist Coll\u00e8ge de Quatre\u2013Nations, where he excelled in the study of rhetoric, mathematics, and the classics. His teachers sought to steer him toward the priesthood, but D\u2019Alembert was obsessed with mathematics. He was only twenty-two years old when one of his memoirs on integral calculus attracted the attention of the Acad\u00e9mie des Sciences; by 1754, he was the Acad\u00e9mie\u2019s secr\u00e9taire perpetuel<\/em> and his country\u2019s premier mathematician and natural philosopher.<\/p>\r\n\r\n D\u2019Alembert\u2019s wit and vivacity made him a favorite of Parisian society. His wide circle of friends included France\u2019s leading intellectuals, most notably Voltaire. Like the majority of his fellow philosophes<\/em>, D\u2019Alembert worked during the day and spent the evening in salons\u2014most often in the company of his longtime lover, Julie de Lespinasse.<\/p>\r\n\r\n Among D\u2019Alembert\u2019s contributions to science and mathematics are his memoirs on partial differential equations, especially with respect to vibrating strings; his many papers on the applications of calculus; his work as co-editor of France\u2019s massive and well-respected Encyclop\u00e9die, ou Dictionnaire raisonn\u00e9 des sciences, des arts, et des m\u00e9tiers<\/em> (for which he was condemned by the church as a secularist); and his crusade for higher mathematics in schools and colleges.<\/p>\r\n\r\n D\u2019Alembert died in Paris at the age of sixty-five on October 29, 1783.<\/p>\r\n\r\n \r\nhttp:\/\/www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk\/Biographies\/D’Alembert.html<\/a>\r\nLinks<\/h3>\r\n
References<\/h3>\r\n
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