French philosophers

French philosophers is a loose designation for thinkers associated with France's intellectual tradition, from Descartes and Pascal through the Enlightenment figures (Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot) to twentieth-century existentialists and poststructuralists (Sartre, Foucault, Derrida).

The phrase often carries a whiff of stereotype—dense prose, cigarettes, café debates about being and nothingness: He's reading French philosophers again, so dinner conversation will be insufferable.