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As Adams explained it, the French philosophes had invented the word, which became a central part of their utopian style of thinking and a major tenet in their school of folly.”

“I have the right to question the government’s approach. I think it’s a catastrophic measure for the industry,” said Xavier Denamur, who owns Les Philosophes and several other bistros in Paris’s chic Le Marais district.

Outside his flagship bistro, Les Philosophes, the normally traffic-clogged rue Vieille-du-Temple was empty under a leaden sky, save for a few people with suitcases rushing to catch trains and hail taxis to flee Paris.

“It’s a catastrophic situation,” Mr. Denamur said, surveying the ghostly interior of Les Philosophes, where cane-backed chairs and marble-topped round tables, normally outside on the sidewalk, were piled into teetering stacks.

For all the general delight of their existence, though, every time the Enlightenment philosophes put pen to paper they put their lives and liberty on the line.