French philosophy
Sartre's intellectual tradition
French philosophy names a tradition of thought from France that has shaped Western intellectual life disproportionately to the country's size.
The tradition includes Descartes' rationalism, the Enlightenment philosophes, existentialism through Sartre and Beauvoir, and postwar movements like structuralism and postmodernism.
French philosophy tends toward grand systematic ambition and literary style, often blurring the line between philosophy and literature.
The phrase can carry a whiff of obscurantism for critics who find the prose deliberately difficult: I couldn't get through it—too much French philosophy.
Grammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
- genealogyStudy of family descent
archaeology · panopticon · discipline · biopolitics · trace · supplement · rhizome · deterritorialization
Phenomenologist of embodiment
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
- embodimentConcrete manifestation of idea
- fleshSoft body matter
- chiasmX-shaped crossing point
face · hermeneutics · Marcel · mystery · Henry · life · Marion · givenness
French existentialist philosopher
- CamusFrench absurdist author-philosopher
- BeauvoirFrench feminist philosopher
- absurdWildly illogical
- authenticityQuality of being genuine
bad faith · nausea · The Stranger · Sisyphus · revolt · commitment · anguish · nothingness
French Enlightenment satirist
- RousseauFrench surname, philosopher or painter
- EncyclopédieComprehensive Enlightenment-era French reference
- DiderotPhilosopher who assembled comprehensive knowledge
- d'AlembertFrench polymath, encyclopedist
Montesquieu · social contract · natural rights · separation of powers · tolerance · reason · Candide · noble savage
Cogito ergo sum's author
French structural anthropologist
- AlthusserStructuralist Marxist thinker
- LacanFrench psychoanalytic theorist
- structureArrangement of interconnected parts
- signMark conveying information
signifier · signified · bricolage · kinship · ideology · imaginary · synchronic · diachronic
Derrida
Grammatology's French author
- FoucaultProminent French family name
- deconstructionAnalysis exposing self-contradiction
- discourseFormal communication on subjects
genealogy · archaeology · panopticon · discipline · biopolitics · trace · supplement · rhizome · deterritorialization · Baudrillard
Merleau-Ponty
Phenomenologist of embodiment
- perceptionMental interpretation of stimuli
- embodimentConcrete manifestation of idea
- fleshSoft body matter
chiasm · face · hermeneutics · Marcel · mystery · Henry · life · Marion · givenness · intentionality
Sartre
French existentialist philosopher
authenticity · bad faith · nausea · The Stranger · Sisyphus · revolt · commitment · anguish · nothingness · Merleau-Ponty
Voltaire
French Enlightenment satirist
- RousseauFrench surname, philosopher or painter
- EncyclopédieComprehensive Enlightenment-era French reference
- DiderotPhilosopher who assembled comprehensive knowledge
Montesquieu · d'Alembert · social contract · natural rights · separation of powers · tolerance · reason · Candide · noble savage · Émile
Descartes
Cogito ergo sum's author
Lévi-Strauss
French structural anthropologist
- AlthusserStructuralist Marxist thinker
- LacanFrench psychoanalytic theorist
- structureArrangement of interconnected parts
sign · signifier · signified · bricolage · kinship · ideology · imaginary · synchronic · diachronic · semiotics
élan vital
Creative principle driving evolution
- durationLength of existence
- intuitionInstinctive immediate understanding
- memoryMind's retention capacity
time · becoming · effort · habit · action · contingency · consciousness · freedom
- French Culturebaguette, baguettes, beret, berets, brie
- philosophiesempiricism, stoicism, nihilism, idealism, materialism
- philosophylogic, metaphysics, ontology, axiology, aesthetics
- French ThoughtDescartes, Sartre, Foucault, Derrida, Camus
- enlightenmentVoltaire, Rousseau, Locke, Kant, Montesquieu
- FrancophoneParis, Haitian Creole, bonjour, merci, bilingual
ethics, France, philosophy, French, philosopher, Francophone, philosophical, existentialism, philosophize