French philosophy is philosophy in France, by French people, and in the French language, a part of French culture. French philosophy includes several schools of thought and has influenced Western philosophy for centuries. It includes the medieval scholasticism of Peter Abelard, the founding of modern philosophy by René Descartes, the 18th century Enlightenment philosophes who influenced the French Revolution, 19th century eclecticism, spiritualism, socialism, and positivism; and 20th century continental philosophy such as Bergsonism, philosophy of science, phenomenology, existentialism, structuralism, poststructuralism, and postmodernism.
Medieval period French philosophy begins in the medieval period with authors writing in Latin, brought by the Romanization of Gaul and Gallo-Roman culture. Cassiodorus (ca. 490–585) cites in his book (dated 526) a letter to king Athalaric: "Finally you found Roman eloquence in regions that were not originally its own; and there the reading of Cicero rendered you eloquent where once the Gaulish language resounded."Languages and Communities in the Late-Roman and Post-Imperial Western Provinces. (2023). United Kingdom: OUP Oxford. p. 143 Christian monk Gennadius of Massilia (died c. 496) wrote Of Church Doctrine (De Ecclesiasticis Dogmatibus), long attributed to Saint Augustine.Variae 8. 12. 7 Fortescue, A. (1909). Gennadius of Marseilles. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06417a.htm Ratramnus
Medieval philosophy was very much a part of Christian philosophy and theology. During the Carolingian Renaissance, Ratramnus (d. c. 868) defended Gottschalk of Orbais' (808–868) views on double predestination, a controversy throughout Francia in the 9th century.
Ratramnus also later supported Gottschalk in his conflict with archbishop Hincmar (806–882) of Rheims, advisor to Charles the Bald. Hincmar of Rheims altered a hymn, changing the words trina deitas (triune God) for summa deitas (supreme God).Giulio D’Onofrio, ed., History of Theology II: The Middle Ages (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2008), 80.McCracken, Early Medieval Theology, 110. Gottschalk accused Hincmar of Sabellianism, and Hincmar accused Gottschalk of Arianism.
Ratramnus also wrote Against the Objections of the Greeks who Slandered the Roman Church, a response to the Photian schism (863–867) and defense of the filioque addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed.G.E. McCracken, ed. Early Medieval Theology, Library of Christian Classics 9 (Louisville: KY, 1957), pp. 109-47, here 109.
Gaunilo The Benedictine monk of Marmoutier Abbey and empiricist Gaunilo is well known for his work In Behalf of the Fool. Gaunilo objects to Saint Anselm of Canterbury's (1033–1109) ontological argument for the existence of God found in Anselm's Proslogion (c. 1078). Gaunilo contends as a reductio that the same argument proves the existence of "the most perfect island".An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, Michael J. Murray and Michael Cannon Rea, Cambridge University Press, 2008, pg. 126. Lanfranc (c. 1010–1089) and Saint Anselm were Benedictine monks at Bec Abbey.A Companion to the Abbey of Le Bec in the Central Middle Ages (11th–13th Centuries). (2017). Netherlands: Brill.
Nominalism Medieval philosophy was also concerned with the problem of universals inherited from antiquity. Roscellinus (c. 1050–c. 1121) defended nominalism, stating universals are merely an emission of sound ().Weber, A., Perry, R. B. (1925). History of Philosophy. United States: C. Scribner's sons. p. 172Evans, J. (1925). Life in Mediaeval France. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, H. Milford. p. 136 Among Roscellinus' supporters was Raimbert of Lille.Ueberweg, F., Porter, N., Botta, V. (1872). A History of Philosophy: From Thales to the Present Time. United States: C. Scribner. p. 373
Roscellinus also stated the three persons of the Trinity were not one substance, arguing if they were then God the Father and the Holy Spirit would have become incarnate along with God the Son. This prompted Anselm's On Faith in the Trinity.
In 1092/1093, a council convoked at Soissons by the archbishop of Reims condemned his interpretation and accused Roscellinus of tritheism.Maurice, F. D. (1859). Mediaeval Philosophy: Or, a Treatise of Moral and Metaphysical Philosophy from the Fifth to the Fourteenth Century by Frederick Denison Maurice. (n.p.): Richard Griffin. p. 130Schaff, P. (1907). History of the Christian Church: The Middle Ages from Gregory VII, 1049, to Boniface VIII, 1294. United States: Wm. B. Eerdmans. p. 596 Roscellinus recanted his theological beliefs, but later returned to professing them.
Platonism
Anselm of Laon (d. 1117) studied under Anselm at Bec and was a leading proponent of philosophical realism who helped to pioneer biblical hermeneutics. William of Champeaux (c. 1070–1121) studied under Roscellinus and Anselm of Laon, and was also a proponent of realism.Ueberweg, History, p. 376 William was a friend of mystic Bernard of Clairvaux (1090–1153). Chartres The philosophers of the cathedral school at Chartres were at the forefront of an intellectual climate of the High Middle Ages now known as the twelfth-century Renaissance, pioneering the Scholastic philosophy that came to dominate European medieval philosophy. Known as , they promoted scholarship and Platonism, such as found in the Timaeus.Glick, T. F., Livesey, S. J., Wallis, F. (2005). Medieval Science, Technology, and Medicine: An Encyclopedia. United Kingdom: Routledge. p. 413Natural Particulars: Nature and the Disciplines in Renaissance Europe. (1999). United Kingdom: MIT Press. p. 79
Ivo of Chartres (c. 1040–1115) was a student of Anselm at Bec.Ghellinck, J. (1910). St. Ivo of Chartres. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08257a.htm The best known philosophers at Chartres included Bernard (d. c. 1125) and Thierry (d. c. 1150) of Chartres, and Gilbert of Poitiers (c. 1086 –1154).
Gilbert of Poitiers studied under William of Champeaux, Anselm of Laon and Bernard of Chartres. Gilbert's views on the Trinity were controversial, contending the divine essence of God exists separately, and so he was condemned for teaching a "quaternity."The Cambridge Dictionary of Christianity, Two Volume Set. (2019). United States: Wipf & Stock Publishers. p. 459
William of Conches (c. 1090–c. 1154) studied under Bernard. Herman of Carinthia (c. 1105–c. 1155) and Clarembald of Arras (c. 1110–c. 1187) were among Thierry's students.
Indifferentism William of Champeaux was also the teacher of Walter of Mortagne (c. 1100–1174),History of Philosophy by William Turner, p. 279 leader of the "indifferentists", a type of platonist who attempts to avoid the more extreme forms of platonism, and according to whom the universal it itself indifferent, changing according to points of view. Raimbert's nominalism was attacked by Odo of Tournai (1060–1113).
Aristotelianism Peter Abelard Peter Abelard (1079–1142) was a scholastic philosopher, theologian and logician who taught at the cathedral schools of Paris. The Chambers Biographical Dictionary describes him as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th Century".Chambers Biographical Dictionary, 2011, , page 3 He wrote Sic et Non (c. 1121) and fixed more decisively than anyone before him the scholastic manner of philosophizing. Abelard was also expelled by Anselm of Laon, and clashed with his master William of Champeaux, and opposed by Alberic of Paris.Twelfth-Century Logic and Metaphysics: Alberic of Paris and His Contemporaries. (2025). Germany: Brill. Abelard is also notable for his love affair and collaboration with Héloïse (1101–1164).
Abelard helped to establish the authority of Aristotle's logic.Robinson, J. H. (1902). An Introduction to the History of Western Europe. United Kingdom: Ginn & Company. p. 268 Abelard distinguished between de dicto modal sentences and de re modal sentences.Lagerlund, Henrik, "Medieval Theories of the Syllogism", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2026 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2026/entries/medieval-syllogism/> Abelard also defended conceptualism on the problem of universals.LaFave, K. (2017). The Sound of Ontology: Music as a Model for Metaphysics. United States: Lexington Books. p. 76 Abelard further showed a great interest in ethics, writing Ethics (1139).
Abelard amended Augustine's doctrine of original sin. The Vatican and Pope Innocent III accepted the view that unbaptized babies did not, as at first believed, go straight to Hell but to a special area of limbo, limbus infantium.Panati, C. (1996). Sacred Origins of Profound Things: The Stories Behind the Rites and Rituals of the World's Religions. United States: Penguin Publishing Group. p. 490 They would therefore feel no pain, but no supernatural happiness either, because they would not be able to see the deity who created them.
Abelard's lectures attracted students from across Europe, helping prepare the founding of the University of Paris a few decades after his death.Compayré, G. (1893). Abelard and the origin and early history of universities. Charles Scribner's Sons The patronage of Italian Peter Lombard (c. 1096–1160) by Odo, bishop of Lucca, who recommended him to Bernard of Clairvaux, allowed him to leave Italy and further his studies at Reims and Paris. Lombard became Bishop of Paris and is author of the Sentences (c. 1150).Richard William Southern, Scholastic Humanism and the Unification of Europe: The heroic age ( 2001:138)
The Petit Pont school introduced the new logic, and included Adam of Balsham (c. 1100–c. 1157), who studied with Lombard, and William of Soissons, who coined the principle of explosion.Novikoff, A. J. (2013). The Medieval Culture of Disputation: Pedagogy, Practice, and Performance. United States: University of Pennsylvania Press, Incorporated. p. 108
The Summa aurea of William of Auxerre (1150–1231) shows a debt to Lombard.Principe, W. H. (1963). William of Auxerre's Theology of the Hypostatic Union. United Kingdom: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies. p. 15 Bishop of Paris William of Auvergne (c. 1185–1249) extensively engaged with Aristotle.Lewis, Neil and Katrin Fischer, "William of Auvergne", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2023 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/spr2023/entries/william-auvergne/>. Franciscan John of La Rochelle (c. 1200–1245) taught at Paris.Langholm, O. (1992). "Chapter Five Franciscan Economics 1: Alexander of Hales, John of La Rochelle, and the “Summa of Brother Alexander”". In Economics in the Medieval Schools. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004452428_007
John of La Rochelle's students include Italian Saint Bonaventure.Adamson, Robert (1911). "Bonaventura, Saint". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. 4. (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 197-198. Italian and founder of the Aristotelian Thomist school Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) taught at Paris. John of Paris (c. 1255–1306) defended Aquinas.Nederman, Cary and Alessandro Mulieri, "Medieval Political Philosophy", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2025 Edition), Edward N. Zalta & Uri Nodelman (eds.), URL = <https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2025/entries/medieval-political/>.
Condemnation of 1277