Ampère was born on 20 January 1775 to Jean-Jacques Ampère, a prosperous businessman, and Jeanne Antoinette Desutières-Sarcey Ampère during the height of the French Enlightenment.

French Enlightenment masterpieces such as Georges-Louis Leclerc, comte de Buffon ’ s Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière ( begun in 1749 ) and Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d ' Alembert ’ s Encyclopédie ( volumes added between 1751 and 1772 ) thus became Ampère ’ s schoolmasters.

His education was filled with the ideals of the French Enlightenment of the time, and he was fascinated by Pierre Macquer's dictionary of chemistry.

Candide, ou l ' Optimisme (; French: ) is a French satire first published in 1759 by Voltaire, a philosopher of the Age of Enlightenment.

The concept of representative democracy arose largely from ideas and institutions that developed during the European Middle Ages, the Age of Enlightenment, and the American and French Revolutions.

As can be seen in the texts, the French declaration is heavily influenced by the political philosophy of the Enlightenment, and by Enlightenment principles of human rights, some of which it shares with the U. S. Declaration of Independence which preceded it ( 4 July 1776 ).

The Encyclopédie represented the essence of the French Enlightenment.

French materialism is the name given to a handful of French 18th century philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment, many of them clustered around the salon of Baron d ' Holbach.

* A History of Philosophy: Volume VI: Modern Philosophy: From the French Enlightenment to Kant.

Enlightenment thinkers such as Voltaire helped fuel this resentment by denigrating the Catholic Church and destabilizing the French monarchy.

In the 18th century, writers of the Enlightenment wrote about feudalism to denigrate the antiquated system of the Ancien Régime, or French monarchy.

Enlightenment authors generally mocked and ridiculed anything from the " Dark Ages " including feudalism, projecting its negative characteristics on the current French monarchy as a means of political gain.

German artists and intellectuals, heavily influenced by the French Revolution and by the great German poet and writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ( 1749 – 1832 ), turned to Romanticism after a period of Enlightenment.

The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval Natural law tradition that became prominent during the Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson, and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

The " Philosophes " were eighteenth century French intellectuals who dominated the French Enlightenment and were influential across Europe.

The leader of the French Enlightenment and a writer of enormous influence across Europe, was Voltaire ( 1694 – 1778 ).

The Republic of Letters: A Cultural History of the French Enlightenment ( 1994 ) 338 pp online edition

* Kaiser, Thomas E. " This Strange Offspring of Philosophie: Recent Historiographical Problems in Relating the Enlightenment to the French Revolution.

French Women and the Age of Enlightenment.

Several of his works, along with many other Byzantine physicians, were translated into Latin, and eventually, during the Enlightenment and Age of Reason, into English and French.

A British writer, Richard Haestier, in a book, Dead Men Tell Tales, recalls that in the turmoil preceding the French Revolution the body of Henry 4,, who had died nearly 180 years earlier, was torn to pieces by a mob.

* 1741 – Nicolas Chamfort, French writer ( d. 1794 )

* 1902 – Julien Torma, French writer, playwright and poet ( d. 1933 )

* 1713 – Guillaume Thomas François Raynal, French writer ( d. 1796 )

* 1895 – Philippe Panneton, French Canadian physician, diplomat, and writer ( d. 1960 )

* 1715 – Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues, French writer ( d. 1747 )

* 1920 – Louis Pauwels, French journalist and writer ( d. 1997 )

* 1941 – François Weyergans, French doctor and writer

* 1621 – Guillaume du Vair, French writer ( b. 1556 )

* 1954 – Colette, French writer ( b. 1873 )

* 1844 – Anatole France, French writer, Nobel Prize laureate ( d. 1924 )

* 1645 – Jean de La Bruyère, French writer ( d. 1696 )

* 1900 – Gontran de Poncins, French writer and adventurer ( d. 1962 )

* 1524 – François Hotman, French lawyer and writer ( d. 1590 )

* Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade, French aristocrat, revolutionary politician, philosopher, and writer famous for his libertine sexuality and lifestyle.

* 1986 – Simone de Beauvoir, French writer ( b. 1908 )

Alfred Jarry ( 8 September 1873 – 1 November 1907 ) was a French writer born in Laval, Mayenne, France, not far from the border of Brittany ; he was of Breton descent on his mother's side.

* 1911 – Hervé Bazin, French writer ( d. 1996 )

* 1920 – Edmonde Charles-Roux, French journalist and writer

* 1604 – François Hédelin, abbé d ' Aubignac, French writer ( d. 1676 )

* 1919 – Michel Déon, French writer

* 1142 – Pierre Abélard, French writer ( b. 1079 )

* 1720 – Antoine Hamilton, French writer ( b. 1646 )

* 1909 – Robert Charroux, French writer ( d. 1978 )

* 1911 – Hervé Bazin, French writer ( d. 1996 )