French Enlightenment

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The French Enlightenment was an 18th-century intellectual movement in France characterized by figures like Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot, who championed reason, secularism, and political and social reform, laying ideological foundations for the French Revolution.

Aliases (1)

Statements (65)
Predicate Object
instanceOf historical period
intellectual movement
philosophical movement
aimedAt reform of education
reform of legal system
reform of political institutions
reform of religious institutions
coreValue critique of absolute monarchy
critique of religious authority
individual liberty
progress
rationalism
reason
secularism
social reform
tolerance
country France
field economics
literature
philosophy
political theory
religious criticism
science
hasConcept freedom of expression
general will
natural rights
popular sovereignty
religious toleration
separation of powers
social contract
hasMainProponent Baron d’Holbach
Condorcet
Denis Diderot
Helvétius
Jean d’Alembert
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Montesquieu
Pierre Bayle
Voltaire
Étienne Bonnot de Condillac
hasWork Candide
Encyclopédie
Letters Concerning the English Nation
The Social Contract
The Spirit of the Laws
Émile, or On Education
influenced Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen
French Revolution
human rights discourse
modern liberalism
republicanism in France
secularism in France
influencedBy English Enlightenment
Isaac Newton
John Locke
René Descartes
Scientific Revolution
language French
location Paris
partOf Age of Enlightenment
startTime 18th century
usedMedium literary satire
pamphlets
philosophical treatises
salons


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