*Philosophes* (French, n. pl.) — the intellectuals and writers of the eighteenth-century French Enlightenment, such as [[Voltaire]], Diderot, Montesquieu, d'Alembert, and [[Rousseau]]. The term is not simply "philosophers" in the technical sense: it names a class of public men of letters who applied reason and critical inquiry to religion, politics, and society, championing tolerance, science, and reform. > [!note] Seedling — this definition is still being developed. Source: [[Evil in Modern Thought - Neiman|Evil in Modern Thought]] by Susan Neiman, p. 211.