Knowra Philosophes Philosophes The philosophes were eighteenth-century French writers and intellectuals who used reason and criticism to promote scientific inquiry, religious tolerance, and social reform.
Voltaire : A French writer and polemicist whose works attacked religious intolerance and arbitrary authority. His campaigns against persecution made tolerance a defining philosophe cause.
French Enlightenment : An eighteenth-century movement in France that applied reason and criticism to knowledge, politics, religion, and society. The philosophes were its most visible writers and public advocates.
Encyclopédie : A French reference work edited by Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d'Alembert, published between 1751 and 1772. It gathered practical and theoretical knowledge while challenging intellectual authority.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau : A Genevan writer and political thinker whose works examined inequality, education, and popular sovereignty. His critique of polished civilization diverged from many philosophes’ confidence in progress.
French Revolution : A period of political and social upheaval in France beginning in 1789 that ended the monarchy and transformed the state. Revolutionaries drew on Enlightenment language, though they interpreted it in competing ways.
Denis Diderot : A French writer and editor who co-created the Encyclopédie. He organized the movement’s largest collaborative project for circulating knowledge.
Scientific Revolution : A transformation in European science from the sixteenth through seventeenth centuries, marked by new methods and theories of nature. Its confidence in observation and mathematical explanation informed philosophe accounts of reason.
Censorship in France : State and ecclesiastical controls over publishing, performance, and public expression in France. Censorship shaped how philosophes wrote, published, and reached audiences.
Jansenism : A Catholic movement emphasizing divine grace, moral rigor, and human dependence on God. Its religious rigor challenged the philosophes’ criticism of clerical authority and dogma.
Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen : A 1789 French declaration asserting rights and principles of citizenship and political authority. Its language of rights and sovereignty echoed debates the philosophes had helped popularize.
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