philosophes

Cultural  

1. A group of radical thinkers and writers in France in the eighteenth century, including Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. The philosophes stressed the use of human reason and were especially critical of established religious and political practices in France.

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Example Sentences

Roland had grown up reading the philosophes and was influenced by Diderot and Rousseau, among others.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 2, 2026

The brainchild of two major French philosophes, the Encyclopedia was a full-scale attempt to catalog, categorize, and explain all of human knowledge.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

Some of the most noteworthy philosophes included the following.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2020

The philosophes stressed that society and humankind could improve.

From Textbooks • Jan. 1, 2012

The stacks of Nahuatl manuscripts in Mexican archives depict the tlamatinime meeting to exchange ideas and gossip, as did the Vienna Circle and the French philosophes and the Taisho-period Kyoto school.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann