Thinking à la française: How French intellectuals shaped the world

Nerd Alert! This week we focus on France’s contribution to knowledge and ideas. If French philosopher René Descartes famously said, “I think, therefore I am,” then “we think, therefore we are” could be said of the French. Over the years, France has produced a wide array of world-leading thinkers at the forefront of dazzling theories about knowledge, liberty, justice, the human condition – and, of course, the meaning of life. But ask people to name a French intellectual today, and chances are they’ll mention someone long deceased: Camus, Sartre, de Beauvoir, Foucault… It begs the question: where are the intellectuals now?