philosopheArticle Free Pass philosophe, any of the literary men,
scientists, and thinkers of 18th-century France who were united,
in spite of divergent personal views, in their conviction of the
supremacy and efficacy of human reason. Inspired by the
philosophic thought of René Descartes, the skepticism of the
Libertins, or freethinkers, and the popularization of science by
Bernard de Fontenelle, the philosophes expressed support for
social, economic, and political reforms, occasioned by sectarian
dissensions within the church, the weakening of the absolute
monarchy, and the ruinous wars that had occurred toward the end
of Louis XIV’s reign. In the early part of the 18th century, the
movement was dominated by Voltaire and Montesquieu, but that
restrained phase became more volatile in the second half of the
century. Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Georges-Louis
Leclerc de Buffon, Étienne Bonnot de Condillac, Anne-Robert-
Jacques Turgot, and the Marquis de Condorcet were among the
philosophes who devoted t