Final answer:
Denis Diderot's unique contribution to the Enlightenment differed from other philosophes through his editorship of the 'Encyclopédie', which gathered and disseminated a breadth of knowledge across various fields, challenging traditional beliefs and promoting reason and empirical thinking.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Encyclopédie became a comprehensive reference work for the principles of Enlightenment, encompassing a wide array of subjects including science, politics, and philosophy, and promoting concepts such as reason, skepticism, and intellectual interchange.
Diderot differed from other philosophes like Voltaire and Rousseau in that he was not primarily a philosopher with a singular, specific philosophy. Instead, he focused on collecting and disseminating knowledge and encouraging progressive intellectual collaboration.
Diderot appreciated empirical inquiry and critical thinking over conventional wisdom and inherited dogmas, and his crowning achievement, the Encyclopédie, actively sought to advance learning and knowledge by challenging traditional societal constructs and religious dogma.
In contrast, other philosophes such as Voltaire were more renowned for their wit and criticism of the church and state, while Rousseau was known for his distinctive ideas on education and society. In essence, Diderot's contribution was the creation of a platform that not only reflected the Enlightenment's ideals but also facilitated their spread in a way that other individual writings could not match.