Curated playlist
French political philosophers
- VoltaireThe line Voltaire is most quoted for was written in 1906, long after he died.
- Victor HugoVictor Hugo asked for a pauper's funeral and got the largest in French history.
- Michel FoucaultMichel Foucault's surgeon father expected him to become a surgeon too. He became a leading thinker on power instead.
- MontesquieuMontesquieu published The Spirit of Law anonymously in 1748, and the Church banned it in 1751.
- Maximilien RobespierreRobespierre was executed without trial in 1794 by the movement he had helped build.
- Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir's partnership with Sartre began on a bench outside the Louvre.
- Louis AlthusserLouis Althusser used a police officer's shout on the street to explain how ideology shapes every person.
- Alexandre KojèveAlexandre Kojève wrote a 900-page manuscript for Stalin. Whether it ever reached Moscow remains unknown.
- Alexis de TocquevilleAlexis de Tocqueville was sent to America to study prisons. He went far beyond that and wrote a book on democracy.
- Hippolyte TaineHippolyte Taine failed his philosophy exam in 1851 after examiners rejected his essay on sensation.