it describes the role of philosophers in the french revolution and how they helped the common people to seek justice.

1. Made by : Abhinav
The role of French philosophers in the revolution

2. The philosophers played an important role in the French Revolution. They inspired the common
mass of France with their revolutionary ideas and prepared them to fight against injustices.

3. Society of estates

4. THE PHILOSOPHES
The philosophes were instrumental in shaping
revolutionary ideas in late 18th century France
The philosophes (French for ‘philosophers’) were writers,
intellectuals and scientists who shaped the French
Enlightenment during the 18th century.
The best known philosophes were Baron de Montesquieu,
Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Denis Diderot.
Other lesser-known figures included the mathematician
and political scientist Nicolas de Condorcet, religious
critic Nicolas Boulanger and atheist writer Jacques-Andre
Naigeon.

5. Montesquieu
• Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) was an enlightened nobleman
turned political philosopher, responsible for articulating a clear
explanation of the separation of government powers.
• Montesquieu was born into a noble family near Bordeaux in January
1689. Several of his relatives were involved in provincial politics, so
the teenage Montesquieu also developed an interest in law and
government. The family’s wealth gave him the opportunity to read,
write and socialise.
• The young Montesquieu became a vocal and charismatic regular in
the Paris social set, where he spoke freely and critically about the old
Régime. He also travelled widely in Europe, observing and studying
different forms of law and government.
• By his late 20s, Montesquieu had worked as a lawyer, an academic
and a history lecturer. He also began writing in earnest. His first
significant public work was Persian Letters (1721), which satirised
many aspects of French society.

6. The Spirit of the Laws
:Montesquieu expanded on this point in his best-known
work, De l’Esprit des Lois (‘The Spirit of the Laws’),
which was published anonymously in 1748. The Spirit of
the Laws compared different systems of government,
with a particular focus on how each system protected
individual liberty.
:The Spirit of the Laws was despised by the church and
placed on its list of prohibited books, however, it proved
very popular and sold thousands of copies across Europe.
Montesquieu died seven years after the first edition,
however The Spirit of the Laws became arguably the most
significant work of Enlightenment political theory, shaping
the outcomes of the American and French revolutions.

7. Voltaire
Voltaire’ was the pen name of the French writer
Francois-Marie Arouet (1694-1778). He was born in Paris
to a moderately wealthy family, the son of a government
official. Arouet received a Jesuit education in Greek,
Latin and the law. A free-spirited character in his youth,
at age 20 Arouet attempted to elope with a young French
émigré but the plot was discovered by his father.
After arriving back in Paris, Arouet spent a year
imprisoned in the Bastille for writing libellous poems
about members of the aristocracy. Around this time he
adopted the pen name Voltaire, a Latinised anagram of
his real name.

8. Religious criticisms
Voltaire was also an advocate of religious tolerance.
Throughout his life he was a fierce critic of the Catholic
church, condemning its endemic corruption and the
greed and depravity of high ranking clergymen.
He wrote sourly about the church’s vast landholdings and
the large tithes it imposed on the struggling peasantry.
He condemned venality in the church, criticising the
practice of nobles buying positions in the clergy, and
complained about the Vatican intervening in French civil
matters.
Supporters of the church damned Voltaire as a heretical
atheist but like many other philosophes, in reality, he
was a deist who believed in God but distrusted organised
religion.

9. Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) was another Enlightenment writer
whose political and philosophical ideas shaped the French Revolution.
Rousseau was born in Switzerland to a successful middle-class family.
His mother died a few days after Rousseau’s birth; his father was a
third-generation watchmaker.
The young Rousseau was raised around craftsmen and artisans. He
became an avid reader, though he had little in the way of formal
education. Rousseau spent most of his 20s travelling, working a variety
of menial jobs while studying and educating himself. In his 30th year,
he moved to Paris, where he later befriended fellow philosophe Denis
Diderot and had an article published in Diderot’s famous Enlightenment
work Encyclopédie.

10. The Social Contract
Probably Rousseau’s most significant contribution to
Enlightenment political theory was his 1762 work The Social
Contract. In this book, he made a simple but now famous
statement: “Man is born free, yet everywhere he is in
fetters [chains]”.
Rousseau pondered why people voluntarily submitted to the
rule of kings and governments, surrendering their freedoms
and liberties in the process. The answer, he concluded, was
that humans are essentially good and desire peace, stability
and good order. Civilised human society cannot exist without
government and laws to keep order.
During this exploration, Rousseau articulated the idea of the
‘social contract’, an unwritten agreement that exists
between governments and individuals. He also articulated
the concept of popular sovereignty, suggesting that the true
power of government was derived from the consent of the
people.

11. Diderot
Denis Diderot (1713-1784) was another prominent figure of the
French Enlightenment. The son of a cutlery maker, Diderot was
born in Champagne, northern France. He received a Jesuit
education and moved to Paris with the intention of joining the
clergy, before choosing to study law instead.
Soon after, Diderot turned to writing. He spent his early years
undertaking small writing and translation jobs and filling
clerical positions. His lack of connections prevented Diderot
from obtaining any significant writing roles and, as a
consequence, he was frequently broke.
Among his early writings were a history of Greece, an anthology
of short stories and essays containing criticisms of the Catholic
church. One of Diderot’s essays was condemned as heretical and
in 1749 he was arrested and imprisoned for several months.

12. • The impact these philosophes, their writings and theories had on the
French Revolution has sometimes been exaggerated and is open to
debate.
• None of the philosophes were revolutionaries and very few advocated or
even predicted a revolution. Indeed, most were intellectual elitists with
little regard for the common people, believing they had little or no role in
government. Most of the significant philosophes were also dead long
before 1789.
• Despite this, their writings and ideas, particularly their political theories
and criticisms of the Ancient Régime, helped create an environment
where revolutionary ideas could germinate and prosper.
Impact on the revolution

13. role of philosophers in raising the awareness among people of
france
1) During 18 th century , France had many revolutionary
thinkers.Among them were Voltaire , Rousseau , Montesquieu and
Dederot .Their revolutionary ideas helped the people to fight for
their rights .
2) They exposed the inefficiency of the monarch and and his government.
(3) Voltaire's ideas encouraged people to fight against the privileges and
finance of the Church without guilt.
(4) John Locke propounded the ideas refuting divinity and absolute
rights of monarch.
(5) Montesquieu believed that all the powers should not be concentrated
in one person's hand.
(6) Rousseau asserted the doctrine of democracy and popular sovereignty.
He believed that the government should be based on the consent if the
governed .He wrote a book known as " Social Contract" .

14. Revolutionary thoughts of philosophers
(1) They did not believe in the doctrine of the divine and absolute right
of the monarch. In his Two Treatises of Government John Locke refuted
this doctrine strongly.
(2) Rousseau carried the idea forward proposing a form of government
based on a social contract between people and their representatives.
(3) In The Spirit of the Laws, Montesquieu proposed a division of power
within the government between the legislative, the executive and the
judiciary.
(4) The ideas of these philosophers were discussed intensively in salons
and coffee-houses and spread among people through books and
newspapers.
These were frequently read aloud in groups for the benefit of those who
were illiterate. Thus, the philosophers contributed a lot in bringing of the
French Revolution.
(5) Ideas of having a society based on freedom and equal laws and
opportunities for all were put forward by the French philosophers.