François Marie Arouet dit de Voltaire (1694-1778) father a royal functionary Jesuit educ circulates in libertine salon playwright (Oedipe, 1718) Adrienne Lecouvreur (1692-1730) tragic actress Voltaire in love with her died suddenly (poison?) and was refused Church burial. Voltaire wrote bitter poem about this; see also in Letters on England Emilie du Chatelet (1706-49), noble woman, very well educated, success at court, (lessons on Newton by Maupertuis; dressed as man to attend cafe after Acad sci mtgs), lover of Voltaire 1733-47/9, collaborates with Voltaire on study of Newton Chateau de Cirey, 50 miles East of Paris which Voltaire paid to renovate when he lived there with Emilie du Chatelet (and her husband) Isaac Newton 1643-1727 3 laws of motion (inertia, F=ma, action and reaction) mechanical phil, but with gravity, which he cannot explain + need for God to oversee nature, “rewind the clock” Title a response/ rebuttal to Descartes, Principia Philosophiae (1644) Pierre Louis Maupertuis 1698-1759 exped’n to Lapland 1736 to measure curvature of the earth (lemon or orange?) Charles Marie de la Condamine (1701-74) exped to Peru to measure curvature of earth left in 1735; returned only in 1744. Discovered rubber and explored the Amazon along the way Frontspiece features Mme du Chatelet as Voltaire’s muse Emilie du Chatelet’s complete translation of Newton’s Principia, pub’d after her death (by Voltaire) in 1759 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz 1646-1716 -mathematician (calculus at same time as Newton) -court philosopher (many utopian schemes) -Theodicy (1710)=everything is for the best in the best of all possible worlds depiction of the Lisbon earthquake, 1755 (estimated at 8-9 on the Richter scale) 30,000 reported dead at the time German print of hangings after the Lisbon earthquake--I’m not sure what basis in fact or (if factual) what reasons for the hangings “After the earthquake, which had destroyed three-fourths of the city of Lisbon, the sages of that country could think of no means more effectual to preserve the kingdom from utter ruin than to entertain the people with an auto-da-fé,1 it having been decided by the University of Coimbra, that the burning of a few people alive by a slow fire, and with great ceremony, is an infallible preventive of earthquakes.” Candide’s mentor, the optimist philosopher Pangloss, opines that it is all for the good, “all this is for the very best end, for if there is a volcano at Lisbon it could be in no other spot.” But when Pangloss is hanged for heresy, the earth shakes again. Candide laments: “If this is the best of all possible worlds, what are the others like?” The Calas Affair, Toulouse, 1762 Calas was executed in 1763 for allegedly killing his son who was converting to Catholicism. Voltaire’s pamphlet campaign changed public opinion and Calas was exonerated in 1765 (posthumously). Voltaire at the court of Frederick II of Prussia Voltaire’s Chateau at Ferney, France. Now the town is called Ferney-Voltaire. Busts by Houdon, 1778 Voltaire made a triumphant return to Paris in 1776. His play Irene was a great success. He met Benjamin Franklin then. Voltaire’s remains were reinterred in 1791 in the Pantheon in Paris. Pantheon designed as church in1758; completed in 1790 and used by the revolutionaries to honor their heroes. Inscription reads: “aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante” (to its great men from a grateful fatherland). Others reinterred there: Descartes, Rousseau..