Introduction. The goal of the paper is to analyze the phenomenon of the French Enlightenment as a dialectical unity of didactic practice and philosophical theory: a philosophical and pedagogical practice in which the theoretical aspect is inseparable from the practical one. Materials and Methods. The author uses the historical-perspective method, based on the universal principle of historicism, as well as methods of textual and contextual analysis and general methods of hermeneutic research. Results. Having reviewed and analyzed scholarly literature and critical works the author proposes the idea of the inextricable unity of didactic practice and the philosophical theory of Enlightenment. It is shown that this unity was the basis of philosophical and pedagogical practice aimed at transforming the man and the human mind. The discourse of the Enlightenment itself is inseparable from the practice of its transmission. Conclusions. The author developed and substantiated the approach to studying the philosophy of t