Voltaire
Fight fanaticism with reason and irony.
Voltaire, the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, was a poet, playwright, historian and polemicist who made philosophy a public weapon against fanaticism and arbitrary justice. Drawing on Locke and Newton, he defended a deism of reason, religious toleration and legal reform, and turned the tale, the letter and the pamphlet into instruments of critical inquiry.
How can reason fight fanaticism without becoming dogmatic in turn?
Biography
Voltaire, the pen name of François-Marie Arouet, was a poet, playwright, historian and polemicist who made philosophy a public weapon against fanaticism and arbitrary justice. Drawing on Locke and Newton, he defended a deism of reason, religious toleration and legal reform, and turned the tale, the letter and the pamphlet into instruments of critical inquiry.
02 /Philosophy
No authority may persecute people for beliefs that do not disturb public order; diversity of opinion is not dangerous in itself, but becomes so when power takes sides by force.
03 /Reading guides
Original introductions to enter the works, discover their central questions and take the reflection further.
04 /Bibliography
Works, testimonies and further readings are distinguished. Dates refer to composition or first publication, as specified in each entry.
A first reading.
The garden against the system
Follow Candide’s journey to see how a philosophical tale tests optimism against war, disaster and injustice.
Candide, or OptimismEngland as a mirror
Read the Philosophical Letters as an indirect critique of France through religion, commerce and science.
Philosophical LettersThe Calas affair and tolerance
Trace how a judicial error becomes a general argument for tolerance in the Treatise.
Treatise on Tolerance