Idéologues

thumb|right|Frontispiece of Destutt de Tracy's ''Éléments d'idéologie, Parts IV and V: Traité de la volonté et de ses effets'', 1815 The idéologues were a group of French philosophers, physicians and economists, active from the mid-1790s until the end of the Napoleonic era. With the philosopher Antoine Destutt de Tracy and the physician Pierre-Jean-Georges Cabanis as their leading theorists, the group aimed to develop a systematic "science of ideas" () grounded in eighteenth-century sensualist epistemology and focused on moral, political and educational reform. Although they were never a formal academy, the nonetheless influenced France's educational system and intellectual life during the Directory through the Institut de France, the journal '''' and salons such as that of Madame Helvétius.

The relationship between the and Napoleon Bonaparte was complex and conflictual. Prominent had supported Napoleon's 1799 coup, but they later criticised his accumulation of power, and defended a secular, anti-clerical understanding of religion. Napoleon, who had concentrated executive authority in the office of First Consul and negotiated the Concordat of 1801 with Pope Pius VII, denounced the as "metaphysicians" detached from practical governance, employed the term as an insult and even accused them of subversive intentions. His hostility culminated in 1803 with the suppression of the Class of Moral and Political Sciences at the Institut de France, largely dominated by the , which significantly reduced their institutional and cultural influence.