French atheists

Pierre-Jules Hetzel (15 January 1814 – 17 March 1886) was a French editor and publisher celebrated for his extraordinarily lavishly illustrated editions of Jules Verne's novels, highly prized by collectors.

Jeannette Bougrab (born 26 August 1973) is a French lawyer and politician of the UMP who served as the junior minister for Youth and Community Life in the government of Prime Minister François Fillon from 2010 to 2012. Prior to this, she was the Chair of the French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission (HALDE) from 16 April 2010 to 14 November 2010.

Pierre Emmanuel Vidal-Naquet (French pronunciation: [vidal nakɛ]; 23 July 1930 – 29 July 2006) was a French historian who began teaching at the École des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in 1969.
Vidal-Naquet was a specialist in the study of Ancient Greece, but was also interested (and deeply involved) in contemporary history, particularly the Algerian War (1954–62), during which he opposed the use of torture by the French Army, as well as Jewish history. He participated with Michel Foucault and Jean-Marie Domenach in the founding of the Groupe d'information sur les prisons (GIP), which was one of the first French new social movements. He was part of debates over historiography in which he criticized negationism, and he was a supporter of Middle East peace efforts. To the end of his life, Vidal-Naquet never abandoned his fascination with Antiquity.

André Comte-Sponville (born 12 March 1952) is a French philosopher.

Bruno Dumont (French: [dymɔ̃]; born 14 March 1958) is a French film director and screenwriter. To date, he has directed ten feature films, all of which border somewhere between realistic drama and the avant-garde. His films have won several awards at the Cannes Film Festival. Two of Dumont's films have won the Grand Prix award: both L'Humanité (1999) and Flandres (2006). Dumont's Hadewijch won the 2009 Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize) for Special Presentation at the Toronto Film Festival.

Arnaud Denjoy (French: [dɑ̃ˈʒwa]; 5 January 1884 – 21 January 1974) was a French mathematician.

Clémence Royer (21 April 1830 – 6 February 1902) was a self-taught French scholar who lectured and wrote on economics, philosophy, science and feminism. She is best known for her controversial 1862 French translation of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.