L’homme d’esprit selon Montesquieu: pour une définition de «l’esprit des Lumières».

Abstract

The importance Montesquieu accords to the notion of esprit, and its representations in diverse societies that he envisions, spurs us to notice a fundamental notion: «l’homme d’esprit», capable of uniting social and philosophical qualities, constituted in his eyes by an ideal or model form, the man of the Enlightenment par excellence.