Voltaire and the Enlightenment
Voltaire
(1694-1778)
pseudonym of
Francois Marie Arouet
• Voltaire was the most
influential author of the 18th
century, an epochal period
that changed the thinking and
culture of Western Europe.
• He wrote many hundreds of
published works and well over
20,000 letters.
• Voltaire’s published works
range from light verse to epic
poetry, drama, narrative
fiction, essays, a dictionary,
and philosophical tale.
Voltaire (1694-1778)
• Voltaire was considered: practical, energetic,
witty, charming, highly intellectual, outspoken
with a sense of humor
• He didn’t just write, but acted on his ideals
• Sent to prison for gentlemen – the Bastille - for 1
year because of inflammatory writing about
Louis XIV’s regime
• Known as one of the great liberal minds of the
Enlightenment
• Became famous for the phrase “wipe out
corruption in high places”
• Spent most of his life in exile
What is Enlightenment?
• The Age of Enlightenment (or simply the
Enlightenment, or Age of Reason) is an
era from the 1650s to the 1780s in which
cultural and intellectual forces in Western
Europe emphasized reason, analysis and
individualism rather than traditional lines of
authority.
Voltaire’s Education
• From ages of 10-17,
Voltaire attended Louis-leGrand, the Jesuit college in
Paris which had the finest
teachers in France.
Voltaire’s Jesuit Education
• Jesuits gave their students a deep
grounding in logic, disputation and
rhetoric, including the categories of
logic, the analysis of argument and
the study of debate.
• Students were encouraged to look
for possible objections to what they
were being taught or were trying to
prove. This way of thinking became
a habit of mind for the students.
• Classics and modern analysis of the
classics were stressed.
Imprisonment in the Bastille
• “In 1718, Voltaire enjoyed a
first and stunning literary
success with his tragedy
Oedipe (0edipus), changed his
name from Arouet to Voltaire
and enjoyed literary triumph,
fame and wealth.
• He inherited his father’s wealth
in 1724 and invested it
extremely well.
• However, at the height of his
fame and influence, Voltaire
experienced humiliation,
imprisonment and exile to
England”.
Voltaire in the Bastille
In 1726, while at the theater, Voltaire made a clever remark
to the Chevalier de Rohan, a young nobleman, who
resented that Voltaire made him look like a fool. To get even,
Rohan had several men give Voltaire a serious beating,
which he watched from his carriage. Furious, Voltaire took
fencing lessons and planned to challenge Rohan to a duel,
but the Chevalier refused to duel with a commoner. To avoid
a problem, the powerful Rohan family had a lettre de cachet
issued and Voltaire was arrested and taken to the Bastille.
While in the Bastille for 11 months, Voltaire began his great
epic on Henry IV, The Henriade. He was eventually released
from prison after promising that he would leave France and
go to England.
Philosophical Letters
• Voltaire’s influential work
was based on his
observations while he
was exiled in England.
• In it, Voltaire describes
and implicitly praises
English religious
toleration.
Voltaire and Optimism
• Voltaire had always felt a tension about this
philosophical optimism; in the 1750s, he came to
reject it.
• The Lisbon earthquake of 1755 raised the
question, “How can the evil and suffering of the
world be reconciled with the goodness of God?”
Lisbon Earthquake
• The Lisbon earthquake of November 1,1755
seared Voltaire’s consciousness and deeply
affected Europe’s intellectual life.
• Voltaire questioned how the evil produced by
nature’s general laws could be reconciled with
the providence of God.
To Voltaire, philosophical optimism equals
fatalism: if “whatever is, is right,” then one’s
attempts to mitigate suffering do not matter.
Voltaire and Candide
• Voltaire wrote Candide at age 65 in three days.
• Makes fun of the absurdities of the human race
and the optimistic philosophy at the time.
• Considered imaginative, subtle, witty, charming,
touching at times, and extremely funny.
• Intended to use humor to criticize a
philosophical position
• Work of satire and parody
Candide and Pangloss
• Voltaire wrote Candide in
anguish as a reply to
Rousseau, who
enthusiastically supported
optimistic philosophy.
• In the philosophical tale,
Candide is the student of
Pangloss, whose
optimistic philosophy
appears futile, irrelevant,
and absurd in the midst of
human pain and suffering.
Pangloss
•Philosophical optimism denies the human
reality of irredeemable pain, injustice, and
cruelty.
•Candide voyages through a world of war,
arrogance, abuses of power, religious
persecutions and disease.
•Voltaire argues that evil is real, and we
cannot understand God’s providence.
•In Candide, the only way to avoid despair
is to labor to satisfy human needs.
Voltaire’s Contribution
• This “shift from theological or
metaphysical concerns to the
human condition” is one of
Voltaire’s main contributions to
the Enlightenment.