The Thought and Influence of Voltaire

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The Thought and Influence of Voltaire

I

The legacy of François Marie Arouet, or Voltaire is not only a vast collection of writings, but also a world that has been radically and directly affected by these works and the activities of their author. While Voltaire did not create many of the ideas he professed, his success at disseminating these is unparalleled. He summed up with the most panache of anyone of his day the central issues of the Enlightenment, and rallied with the greatest fervour to see his beliefs tangibly realised.

This paper will focus on Voltaire’s stances on vital issues, their weight versus the ideas and practices against which they are reactions, and their influence on both 18th century Europe and the modern West.

II

History

Voltaire’s interpretation of history, its value, and the best methods for dealing with it, reveal clearly that his first love is literature. The important qualities of an historical work were, for him, character development, drama, and setting.1[1] But whereas previous historians may have been loath to give any texture to their descriptions of past civilisations, instead preferring value-laden generalisations (Golden Ages and Dark Ages); and whereas it was rare for one to make the attempt to transcend their setting and beliefs for the sake of better understanding their subjects,2[2] Voltaire emphasised that it was vital not just to look at significant events, but also to immerse oneself in the quotidian details of a society, thus understanding the character of the people behind the events.3[3] This deliberate identification with other cultures is characteristic of the relativism that the philosophes practised and that influenced their ethical theories.

Drama aside, V...

... middle of paper ...

...rsity Press, 1959) pp.288-291.

11[11] Gay. p.129.

12[12] Lauer. p.75.

13[13] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. p.85.

14[14] Wade. p.785.

15[15] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. p.142.

16[16] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. p.144.

17[17] Wade. p.786.

18[18] Voltaire. Lettres Philosophiques. (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1964) p.34.

19[19] Wade. p.785.

20[20] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. p.212.

21[21] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. pp.134-136.

22[22] Voltaire. Portable Voltaire. pp.152-155.

23[23] Gay. p.289.

24[24] Wade. p.786.

25[25] Gustave Lanson. “The Voltairian Reformation of France” in Voltaire. ed. William F. Bottiglia. (Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1968) p.139.

26[26] Norman L. Torrey. “Duplicity and Protective Lying” in Voltaire. pp.19-30.

27[27] David D. Bien. The Calas Affair. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1960) p.25-26.

28[28] Gay. pp.278-281.

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