Roland Barthes was a French literary philosopher whose work influenced structuralism, semiotics and anthropology.
1915-1980
Henri Becquerel was a French physicist who discovered radioactivity, an achievement for which he won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.
1852-1908
1811-1882
André Breton was a French writer, editor and critic who was a key figure in the Dada and Surrealist art movements.
1896-1966
French philosopher Auguste Comte (1798–1857) greatly advanced the field of social science, giving it the name "sociology" and influenced many 19th-century social intellectuals.
1798-1857
French writer Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the modern feminist movement. Also an existentialist philosopher, she had a romance with Sartre.
1908-1986
Michel de Montaigne was a 16th century French author best known for his series of philosophical essays, which were published in 1575.
1533-1592
Maximilien de Robespierre was an official during the French Revolution and one of the principal architects of the Reign of Terror.
1758-1794
Marquis de Sade was a French aristocrat and philosopher who became notorious for acts of sexual cruelty in his writings as well as in his own life.
1740-1814
Jacques Derrida was an influential postmodern French philosopher who developed the analytic method known as Deconstruction.
1930-2004
Philosopher and mathematician René Descartes is regarded as the father of modern philosophy for defining a starting point for existence, “I think; therefore I am.”
1596-1650
1926-1984
1844-1924
A leading twentieth century philosopher, Jean-Francois Lyotard was noted for his analysis of postmodernity and its impact on humankind.
1924-1998
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French philosopher and man of letters, the leading exponent of phenomenology in France.
1908-1961
Blaise Pascal was a French mathematician, physicist and religious philosopher, who laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.
1623-1662
1913-2005
Jean-Jacques Rousseau is best known as an influential 18th-century philosopher who wrote the acclaimed work A Discourse on the Arts and Sciences.
1712-1778
Jean-Paul Sartre was a 20th century intellectual, writer and activist who put forth pioneering ideas on existentialism.
1905-1980
1875-1965
Author Voltaire wrote the satirical novella Candide and, despite controversy during his lifetime, is widely considered one of France's greatest Enlightenment writers.
1694-1778
Simone Weil was a French intellectual, activist and Christian Mystic.
1909-1943