Voltaire: Outline of Major Ideas (Summary of the Wikipedia Selection on Voltaire)

Version: 7 Feb 2007

Voltaire: Outline of Major Ideas (Summary of the Wikipedia selection on Voltaire)

• Overview: • The greatest talent of Voltaire (1694-1778), originally Francois-Marie Arouet, was writing. From a very early age he showed whit, a special ability for prose and a huge gift for stinging irony and sarcasm.

• To appreciate the extent of these talents, just note that he spent long periods of time in jail and exile due to utterances from his mouth as well as writings. This started, perhaps unfairly, in the Bastille at age 23 (1717) for 11 months. Then in 1726 a nobleman was offended by his witticisms and had him beaten up. Instead of getting justice after this abuse, a corrupt court sent him towards the Bastille again. He was only released upon agreeing to go into exile in England.

• While contemplating the corrupt legal (judicial) system of France during exile, he came into the company of such people as John Locke and Sir. Isaac Newton as well as British ideas, including constitutional monarchy. The works of Shakespeare (1564-1616) had a great effect on him.

• As a result of all these influences and his great natural abilities as a writer he was able to popularize many ideas: defense of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and right to a fair trial; strongly advocated social reform; severely critical of the Christian Church dogma and French institutions of the day (mostly favored the clergy, then the aristocracy, and least the middle class and poor, who paid most of the taxes to support the first two). Though some people claim that he had few original ideas of his own, he is considered one of the most influential figures of his time.

• Major beliefs: • Religion: • Felt that Christianity was a good thing for chambermaids and tailors to believe in, but for the use of the elite he advocated simple deism. He was a “Deist”; some type of “god” is necessary as an eternal, supreme, and intelligent being, BUT he did not believe in “faith”, only reason.

• Opposed Christian beliefs fiercely. The Gospels were fabricated and Jesus did not exist. Rejected supplementation or foundation of any particular religious book or tradition or revelation. That the Gospels were created people who wanted to create God in their own image, and were full of discrepancies.

• Strongly believed in the separation of Church and State, while also advocating religious freedom.

• Science: Voltaire was a great popularizer of the science and philosophy of his age, especially Newtonian physics, and even dabbled in physics and chemistry. His greatest contributions were his texts on history.

• Government: Voltaire perceived the French bourgeoisie to be too small and ineffective, the aristocracy to be parasitic and corrupt, the commoners as ignorant and superstitious, and the church as a static force useful only as a counterbalance since its “religious tax” or the tithe helped to create a strong backing for revolutionaries.

Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. To Voltaire, only an enlightened monarch or an enlightened absolutist, advised by philosophers, like him, could bring about change, as it was the king’s rational interest to improve the power and wealth of his subjects and his kingdom. Believed monarchy to be the key to progress and change.