| The best dramatists, however, among the immediate followers of the philosophes were Sedaine and Marmontel. |
| In this view, the tendency of the philosophes in particular to apply rationality to every problem is considered the essential change. |
| So it happened that the philosophes as a body were not theoretical sceptics merely but militant atheists. |
| The philosophes of the Enlightenment were familiar with all of these arguments, trained as they were in the classics. |
| The leaders of the philosophes themselves gave considerable attention to criticism. |
| If enlightened despotism was a passing fancy, it must also be admitted that not all the philosophes agreed with the virtues of political liberalism either. |
