WPeter Abelard was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, theologian, teacher, musician, composer, poet, and preeminent logician. He is best known in popular culture for his passionate love affair and intense philosophical exchange with his brilliant student and eventual wife, Héloïse d'Argenteuil. He is described as "the keenest thinker and boldest theologian of the 12th century" and as arguably the greatest logician of the Middle Ages. "His genius was evident in all he did"; as the first to use 'theology' in its modern sense, he championed "reason in matters of faith", and "seemed larger than life to his contemporaries: his quick wit, sharp tongue, perfect memory, and boundless arrogance made him unbeatable in debate"--"the force of his personality impressed itself vividly on all with whom he came into contact." He is furthermore considered the most significant forerunner of the modern self-reflective autobiographer, paving the way and setting the tone with his publicly distributed letter, "The History of My Calamities", for both celebrity tell-alls and later religious autobiographies such as Augustine's Confessions.
WCharles de Bovelles was a French mathematician and philosopher, and canon of Noyon. His Géométrie en françoys (1511) was the first scientific work to be printed in French.
WCornelius Castoriadis was a Greek-French philosopher, social critic, economist, psychoanalyst, author of The Imaginary Institution of Society, and co-founder of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group.
WJean Cavaillès was a French philosopher and logician who specialized in philosophy of mathematics and philosophy of science. He took part in the French Resistance within the Libération movement and was arrested by the Gestapo on 17 February 1944 and shot on 4 April 1944.
WLouis Couturat was a French logician, mathematician, philosopher, and linguist. Couturat was the pioneer of constructed linguistic of Ido language.
WJean-Paul Delahaye is a French computer scientist and mathematician.
WRené Descartes was a French-born philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who spent a large portion of his working life in the Dutch Republic, initially serving the Dutch States Army of Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange and the Stadtholder of the United Provinces. One of the most notable intellectual figures of the Dutch Golden Age, Descartes is also widely regarded as one of the founders of modern philosophy.
WJoseph Diez Gergonne was a French mathematician and logician.
WJacques Herbrand was a French mathematician. Although he died at age 23, he was already considered one of "the greatest mathematicians of the younger generation" by his professors Helmut Hasse, and Richard Courant.
WPierre Nicole was one of the most distinguished of the French Jansenists.
WJean Louis Maxime van Heijenoort was a historian of mathematical logic. He was also a personal secretary to Leon Trotsky from 1932 to 1939, and from then until 1947, an American Trotskyist activist.
WWilliam Vorilong, also known as Guillermus Vorrilong, Willem of Verolon, William of Vaurouillon, Guilelmus de Valle Rouillonis, etc. was a French philosopher and theologian. He wrote a biography of Duns Scotus. From 1457 onwards he was a regent master in Lyon, becoming licentiate and master of theology at Lyon in 1458.