Showing results for "philosophes"

• plural of philosophe.

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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philosophes

The pattern was set in the late 18th century, when the philosophes argued that reason could remake society and the revolutionaries took them at their word.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 27, 2026

His 1770s busts of Denis Diderot and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and especially his sculpture of a seated Voltaire, have influenced ever since how the French picture their philosophes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 12, 2026

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 abuses of the church, the ignorance of the nobility, even the injustices of kings might be fair game for criticism, but none of the better-known philosophes called for the equivalent of a political revolution.

From Textbooks ● Jan. 1, 2020

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

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