18th-century French philosophers
18th-century French literature is French literature written between 1715, the year of the death of King Louis XIV of France, and 1798, the year of the coup d'État of Bonaparte which brought the Consulate to power, concluded the French Revolution, and began the modern era of French history. This century of enormous economic, social, intellectual and political transformation produced two important literary and philosophical movements: during what became known as the Age of Enlightenment, the Philosophes questioned all existing institutions, including the church and state, and applied rationalism and scientific analysis to society; and a very different movement, which emerged in reaction to the first movement; the beginnings of Romanticism, which exalted the role of emotion in art and life.
3 episodes
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Emilie du Châtelet
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 18th-century mathematical genius whose insights into Newton and Leibniz were part of the great advance in science in the Enlightenment.
4 February 2021
Featuring: Patricia Fara, David Wootton, Judith Zinsser
ScienceFrench physicists18th-century French philosophersDeaths in childbirth18th-century French writersContributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)French women philosophersDeaths from pulmonary embolism18th-century French mathematicians18th-century philosophers18th-century French scientists18th-century French women writersFrench women physicistsMontesquieu
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas of the French political philosopher (1689-1755) whose work on liberty and republicanism, banned at home, influenced the US constitution.
14 June 2018
Featuring: Richard Bourke, Rachel Hammersley, Richard Whatmore
HistoryMembers of the Prussian Academy of SciencesPhilosophers of law18th-century French philosophersFellows of the Royal SocietyFrench Roman CatholicsContributors to the Encyclopédie (1751–1772)Enlightenment philosophersMembers of the Académie FrançaiseFrench political writersFrench philosophers of historyFrench political philosophers18th-century French male writersOlympe de Gouges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and works of the Frenchwoman who wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791 during the French Revolution
21 April 2022
Featuring: Catriona Seth, Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic
CultureWomen religious writers18th-century French philosophersFrench abolitionistsExecuted French women, French people executed by guillotine during the French RevolutionFrench women philosophersExecuted writersExecuted philosophersFrench women dramatists and playwrights18th-century philosophersFrench deistsWomen in the French RevolutionDeist philosophers18th-century French women writersFrench political philosophers