Definition
The French Enlightenment was a major intellectual movement of the eighteenth century in which philosophers, writers, and public critics challenged established ideas about religion, monarchy, society, knowledge, and political authority.
Why it matters
It matters because it reshaped the language through which educated Europeans thought about toleration, public reason, sovereignty, reform, and criticism of inherited institutions. It did not mechanically cause the French Revolution, but it helped furnish some of the concepts, arguments, and expectations through which the old regime was judged.
Cross-cutting examples
- Voltaire's critique of intolerance and clerical authority
- Rousseau's arguments about sovereignty, citizenship, and political legitimacy
- Diderot's editorial and philosophical role in the Encyclopedie
- Montesquieu's analysis of law, political forms, and the separation of powers
- Broader criticism of privilege, arbitrary power, and inherited hierarchy