François - Marie Arouet (1694 - 1778), better known by his pseudonym Voltaire, is a prominent Enlightenment thinker (Montagud Rubio, 2020). Despite his plebeian but comfortable background, Voltaire criticized the class society of his time, as well as the Catholic Church and various injustices. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), he defended freedom and religious tolerance, maintaining that all men are equal.
Biography
François-Marie Arouet, globally known as Voltaire, was born in the city of Paris, specifically in Châtenay-Malabry, on November 21, 1694 (Montagud Rubio, 2020; Cartwright, 2023). Coming from a prominent family, he was the son of François Arouet, a notary who served as counselor to the king and treasurer of the Chamber of Accounts of Paris, and Marie Marguerite d’Aumard, who passed away when he was seven years old (Montagud Rubio, 2020). According to Montagud Rubio (2020), the Arouet family was large, with five children, but only three, including Voltaire, survived into adulthood; his siblings Armand, who would become a lawyer in the Parliament of Paris, and Marie.
He received his education at the Jesuit college Louis-le-Grand, from 1704 to 1711, during the reign of Louis XIV (Montagud Rubio, 2020). There, he developed a friendship with the brothers René-Louis and Marc-Pierre Anderson, who would later hold ministerial roles. At the age of twelve, he already showed literary talent by writing the tragedy "Amulius and Numitor," of which only fragments remain published in the 19th century. Despite starting legal studies between 1711 and 1713, he abandoned the career to focus on literature. Corresponding to Montagud Rubio (2020), during this time, his godfather, the Abbot of Châteauneuf, introduced him to the Temple Society, a libertine circle, and around the same period, he inherited a large sum from the elderly courtesan Ninon de Lenclos, intended for purchasing books.
In 1713, he worked as a secretary at the French embassy in The Hague, where he composed his "Ode on the Misfortunes of Time" (Montagud Rubio, 2020). However, he was soon sent back to Paris due to his relationship with Catherine Olympe Dunoyer, known as "Pimpette." During this period, he began writing his tragedy "Oedipus," which would not be published until 1718, and his poem "La Henriade." From 1714, he worked as a clerk in a notary's office. Despite his plebeian origins, he frequented Parisian salons and gatherings with the Duchess of Maine at the Château de Sceaux, where he had the opportunity to interact with celebrities and prominent libertine nobles of the time. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), during this time, he composed two scandalous poems, "Le Bourbier" and "L’Anti-Giton," reminiscent of the erotic verse tales of "La Fontaine."
When Louis XIV died in 1715, the Duke of Orléans assumed the regency (Montagud Rubio, 2020). At this time, Voltaire dared to write a satire against the incestuous loves between the duke and his daughter, the Duchess of Berry. As a consequence of his audacity, he was imprisoned in the Bastille, serving his sentence from May 1717 to April 1718. Upon his release, according to Montagud Rubio (2020), he was exiled to his ancestral home in Châtenay-Malabry, adopting the name by which he would be known: Voltaire.
The late 1710s and early 1720s were a highly prolific period for him (Montagud Rubio, 2020). In 1718, he premiered his tragedy "Oedipus." In 1720, he presented "Artemira," and the following year, he offered the manuscript of his epic "La Henriade" to the regent, publishing it under the title "Poème de la Ligue" in 1723. This work was dedicated to King Henry IV of France, whose glory and deeds are the central theme. The success of this work motivated him to begin writing his "Essay on Civil Wars." In 1722, following the death of his father, who left him a substantial inheritance, he traveled to Holland accompanied by the Countess of Rupelmonde. Despite this, according to Montagud Rubio (2020), he did not cease to have other romantic entanglements, such as his relationship with the Marquise de Bernières a year later.
In 1724, he premiered "Mariana" and, despite health problems, presented "The Indiscreet" the following year (Montagud Rubio, 2020). In 1725, he was invited to the wedding of King Louis XV, gaining presence at the French Court. However, in 1726, he became embroiled in a scandal with the Chevalier De Rohan, who ordered him beaten without accepting a traditional duel, considering him a commoner. Despite this, he did not back down and searched all over Paris to demand a duel. Although his demands were just, high society disapproved of a commoner challenging an aristocrat. As a result, he was imprisoned in the Bastille, this time for only two weeks. He was released under the condition of exile to Great Britain, where he spent two and a half years. These events taught him that despite initially being welcomed among the nobles, he would never cease to be seen as a commoner by them. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), this experience turned him into an advocate for the right to universal justice.
During his exile, he decided to settle in London, where he was welcomed by Lord Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke (Montagud Rubio, 2020). In his despair, he even sought help from his brother, Armand Arouet, who did not respond. In England, he immersed himself in Newtonian science, empiricist philosophy, and English political institutions. He learned English and became an Anglophile, considering the English as the wisest and freest people of the time. Although he did not have the opportunity to meet Isaac Newton, he attended his funeral in 1727 at Westminster Abbey. In London, according to Montagud Rubio (2020), he was also struck by religious tolerance and the variety of beliefs among the English. He also deeply admired Shakespeare, translating Hamlet's monologue.
During this period, he published his first major English works: "Essay on Civil War" and "Essay on Epic Poetry" (Montagud Rubio, 2020). He met prominent British figures of the time, such as the deist Samuel Clarke, the philosophical poet Alexander Pope, the satirist Jonathan Swift, and John Locke, whose work he admired. In 1729, he returned to France with three goals: to get rich quickly, to promote tolerance and combat fanaticism, and to spread Newton's scientific thought and Locke's political ideas. To this end, according to Montagud Rubio (2020), he published in French his "Philosophical or English Letters," a text that highlighted the supposedly backward and intolerant French society.
Voltaire desired wealth and saw an opportunity in the project of the mathematician Charles Marie de la Condamine, who discovered a flaw in the lottery system of the French finance minister, Michel Robert Le Pelletier-Desforts (Montagud Rubio, 2020). De la Condamine found a way to exploit the system by buying bonds that allowed him to accumulate almost all the lottery numbers. Surprisingly, the trick worked for both, and despite the lawsuit filed by the minister, they did not break any laws and won a considerable sum of money. However, these gains were small compared to the wealth Voltaire would accumulate. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), he increased his fortune by acquiring American silver in Cádiz and speculating in various financial operations, becoming one of France's main rentiers.
In 1731, he published his work "History of Charles XII," anticipating issues and themes that he would develop in his "Philosophical Letters" (Montagud Rubio, 2020). In this work, he defended religious tolerance and ideological freedom, inspired by English permissiveness and Anglo-Saxon secularism, and accused Christianity of being the root of dogmatic fanaticism. Although the government withdrew the "History of Charles XII" due to its content, it continued to circulate clandestinely. In 1732, he achieved his greatest theatrical success with "Zaïre," a tragedy he wrote in just three weeks. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), in 1733 he published "The Temple of Taste," coinciding with the beginning of his profound relationship with the mathematician and physicist Madame Émilie du Châtelet.
In 1734, his "Philosophical Letters" were condemned, and his arrest was ordered (Montagud Rubio, 2020). Anticipating his arrest, he took refuge in the castle of Marquise du Châtelet in Cirey-sur-Blaise, Champagne. From this moment on, he established a romantic relationship with the marquise, which would last sixteen years, during which they worked on the work "The Philosophy of Newton," summarizing in French the physics of the English genius. He would remain in this retreat for ten years, dedicated to literature. During his stay, he took the opportunity to settle his financial affairs, concluded his lawsuits, and offered to restore the castle, adding a gallery and providing it with a cabinet for the marquise's physics experiments. Similarly, he built a library of 21,000 volumes, personally selected. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), these were austere years for Voltaire, dedicated to writing and studying alongside the marquise.
During this period, he resumed his dramatic career by writing "Adélaïde du Guesclin," the first classical play to depart from Greco-Latin themes and delve into French history (Montagud Rubio, 2020). He later penned "La Muerte de César," "Alzira o los Americanos," and "El Fanatismo o Mahoma." In 1741, he met Felipe Stanhope de Chesterfield in Belgium, inspiring him to write "Los Oídos del Conde de Chesterfield y el Capellán Gudman." In 1742, his work "El Fanatismo o Mahoma" was banned. He traveled to Berlin, where he was appointed an academician, historiographer, and Knight of the Royal Chamber. After a sixteen-year relationship, Marquise du Châtelet fell in love with poet Jean-François de Saint-Lambert. Voltaire discovered them and, though furious, accepted the situation. The Marquise became pregnant but died in 1749 due to childbirth complications. Montagud Rubio (2020) mentions that devastated, he accepted Frederick II of Prussia's invitation to Berlin, angering King Louis XV.
In 1751, he published the first complete version of "El Siglo de Luis XIV" and followed with "Micromegas" in 1752 (Montagud Rubio, 2020). Due to disputes with Frederick II, especially over his clash with Berlin Academy President, materialist philosopher Maupertuis, Voltaire fled Prussia in 1753. He was arrested in Frankfurt by a royal agent and suffered several humiliations before returning to France. He was not well-received by King Louis XV, leading him to seek refuge in Switzerland, at a mansion and estate, Les Délices, near Geneva. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), the 1755 Lisbon earthquake deeply affected him, prompting reflections on the senselessness of history and the nature of evil, leading to the publication of "Poem on the Lisbon Disaster."
Around this time, he began collaborations with Diderot and D'Alembert's Encyclopedia, publishing seven volumes of "Ensayos Sobre la Historia General y Sobre las Costumbres y el Espíritu de las Naciones" in 1756 and "Historia del Imperio de Rusia Bajo Pedro el Grande" in 1759, focusing not only on human history but also on artistic manifestations of the human spirit, customs, social institutions, and religions (Montagud Rubio, 2020). In 1758, he acquired a property in Ferney, France, near the Swiss border, for quick escape if needed. According to Montagud Rubio (2020), he lived there for eighteen years, hosting numerous European intellectuals, exchanging about 40,000 letters, often ending with his phrase "Écrasez l'Infâme."
In 1763, he wrote his "Tratado Sobre la Tolerancia" and completed his "Diccionario Filosófico" the following year (Montagud Rubio, 2020). During this period, he anonymously published a pamphlet against Jean-Jacques Rousseau titled "El Sentimiento de los Ciudadanos." Recognized as an influential figure in public discourse, he participated in various legal processes, including the case of Jean Calas, which contributed to the abolition of judicial torture in France and other European countries, laying the groundwork for modern human rights. In 1773, at an advanced age, he fell seriously ill. Despite this, according to Montagud Rubio (2020), he managed to publish "Historia de Jenni" in 1775 and draft his will in 1776, aware that the end was near.
In 1778, he returned to Paris, where he was warmly received and premiered his play "Irene," fascinating the public (Montagud Rubio, 2020). During this time, he received numerous visitors to debate philosophical and intellectual issues. His health deteriorated progressively, and he passed away on May 30, 1778, at the age of 83, initially buried at the Benedictine monastery of Scellières near Troyes. According to Cartwright (2023), in 1791, his remains were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris in a ceremony led by revolutionaries of the French Revolution, an ironic act given Voltaire's potential disdain for the trial and execution of Louis XVI of France two years later.
Enlightenment Philosophy
His philosophical legacy is based on how he practiced philosophy and the goals that guided his activities, rather than on specific doctrines or original ideas (Shank, 2022). Voltaire's particular philosophical positions and his use of broader philosophical campaigns to defend certain understandings and criticize others shaped what is known as Voltaire's Enlightenment philosophy. This philosophy is characterized by a set of intellectual stances and orientations rather than rigorously defended systematic doctrines. However, as Shank (2022) notes, others found in Voltaire both a model of the well-oriented philosopher and a set of philosophical positions appropriate to this stance. According to Shank (2022), each aspect of this equation was crucial in defining the Enlightenment philosophy that Voltaire came to personify.
Freedom
Voltaire's ideas on freedom are central to his thought, influencing both his social activism and his foray into systematic philosophy (Shank, 2022). In 1734, in response to the scandals sparked by the "Lettres Philosophiques," he authored a "Traité de Metaphysique." This work tackled the concept of freedom, a central theme in the European philosophical discussions of the time, referencing thinkers like Hobbes and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz while exploring issues of materialism, determinism, and providential purpose, essential for deists like John Toland and Anthony Collins. Corresponding to Shank (2022), the debate between Samuel Clarke and Leibniz on Newtonian natural philosophy also influenced Voltaire, who examined human existence and ethics in a universe governed by rational and impersonal laws.
In his work, he positioned himself between the determinism of rationalist materialists and the voluntarism of contemporary Christian natural theologians, arguing that humans are not mere machines but possess free will (Shank, 2022). However, humans are also natural beings governed by inexorable natural laws, and his ethics anchored right action in a self with the natural light of reason, distancing him from radical deists and leading to an elitist understanding of religion's role in society. He believed that those capable of understanding their own reason could find the right course of action independently. However, as many were incapable of such self-awareness and self-control, religion was a necessary guarantor of social order. According to Shank (2022), this stance distanced him from republican politics, reaffirming his position as a liberal and reformist monarchist, skeptical of republican and democratic ideas.
In the "Lettres Philosophiques," he adopted a more radical stance regarding human determinism, especially when discussing Locke's materialist reading of the soul, popular in the radical philosophical discourse of the time (Shank, 2022). Locke's view sparked controversy and was also reflected in Diderot and d'Alembert's "Encyclopédie," as well as his own "Dictionnaire Philosophique." He also defined his own understanding of the soul in similar terms in his own "Dictionnaire philosophique." While Voltaire publicly defended controversial views, his private correspondence revealed a more nuanced understanding of his positions. In these cases, according to Shank (2022), Voltaire was often seen not so much defending a reasoned position on a complex philosophical issue as adopting a political stance designed to affirm his conviction that freedom of expression, regardless of the topic, is sacred and cannot be violated.
Voltaire never actually said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it" (Shank, 2022). However, the myth associating this dictum with his name remains powerful, and his legacy is still invoked through the re-declaration of this statement that he never actually made. Through his correspondence and controversial writings, Voltaire promoted a vision of intellectual and civil freedom, influencing modern libertarian ideas. According to Shank (2022), although he did not write a specific treatise on this topic, his influence is evident in arguments such as Kant's in "What is Enlightenment?", which emphasizes the importance of free and public use of critical reason, an idea clearly influenced by Voltaire.
Hedonism
He grounded his hedonistic morality in the notion of freedom, a key characteristic of his Enlightenment philosophy (Shank, 2022). This was expressed in his salacious poetry, which included eroticism and sexual innuendos, reflecting libertinism in his life. Additionally, he contributed to philosophical libertinism and hedonism by celebrating moral freedom through sexual freedom. His libertine writings and behaviors were used by detractors to accuse him of subversion and social disorder. Nevertheless, he defended libertinism, providing a positive philosophical program and exerting considerable influence. He promoted a happy libertine identity and used philosophical reason to defend this stance, employing poetry and witty prose. He excelled in spreading Enlightenment ideals, promoting a morality that valued personal pleasure and an ethic of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. Furthermore, according to Shank (2022), he attacked traditional Christian asceticism, especially priestly celibacy and moral codes of sexual restraint and bodily self-denial.
His hedonistic ethics also influenced liberal political economy during the Enlightenment, arguing that luxury and the pursuit of private pleasure could benefit the public. In the 1730s, he wrote the poem "Le Mondain," praising the hedonistic life as positive for society, in contrast to traditional Christian views. In his "Essay on the Manners," alongside other Enlightenment thinkers, he celebrated the role of commerce and material acquisition in the progress of civilization. While not an economic theorist like Adam Smith, Voltaire significantly contributed to philosophical discussions that placed freedom and hedonism at the center of intellectual thought in his time. He celebrated commerce and material acquisition as drivers of civilizational progress. According to Shank (2022), personal and philosophical freedom, a major theme in Voltaire's philosophy, intertwines with skepticism and empirical science as antidotes to pernicious dogmatism and authority.
Skepticism
His skepticism derived from the neopyrrhonian revival of the Renaissance, influenced by Montaigne, whose essays fused doubt with the positive construction of a self based on philosophical skepticism (Shank, 2022). Pierre Bayle also significantly influenced Voltaire, who insisted on the value of skepticism as a complete and final philosophical stance in its own right. He criticized the philosophical trends of Descartes, whom Voltaire argued began with skepticism but abandoned it in favor of positive philosophical projects. According to Shank (2022), he called these projects "philosophical romances," arguing they are fictions rather than philosophy and that often the best philosophical explanation is to offer none.
This skepticism defended freedom, challenging any authority, even the sacred (Shank, 2022). Voltaire's views on religion, as revealed in his private writings, are complex, and according to these texts, it would be wrong to label Voltaire as atheist, or even as anti-Christian, as long as a broad understanding of what Christianity implies is accepted. However, he maintained a firm stance against the authority of the church and clergy. For similar reasons, he also became hostile towards the sacred mysteries that underpinned the authority of the Old Regime. In these cases, according to Shank (2022), Voltaire's skepticism served to support his libertarian convictions by challenging these "superstitions" and authority through critical reason.
He also criticized philosophical figures such as René Descartes, Malebranche, and Leibniz, emphasizing that his defense of skepticism and freedom was the main driving force, rather than opposition to religion (Shank, 2022). From this perspective, Voltaire can be fruitfully compared to Socrates, who also rejected systematic philosophical positions and admitted his ignorance. Both defined philosophy as a tool to liberate individuals from authoritarian dogmatism and irrational prejudices. However, while Socrates promoted rigorous dialectics, Voltaire saw this rationalism as the core of the dogmatism it sought to overcome. According to Shank (2022), Voltaire often used satire and wit to discredit philosophical dialectics, considering these methods essential to undermining the sophistry that supported traditional philosophy.
Newtonian Empirical Science
Voltaire, in opposition to rigorous skepticism and sophistical knowledge, proposed careful empirical science as a solution (Shank, 2022). Influenced by Newtonianism, Voltaire criticized imaginative philosophical romances, a critique that originated among English and Dutch Newtonians, many of whom were French Huguenot expatriates. In his "Principia Mathematica," Newton mathematically and empirically described the behavior of celestial and terrestrial bodies. When questioned about how bodies acted according to his mathematical and empirical demonstrations, Newton responded, "I do not feign hypotheses." However, according to Shank (2022), Newton's primary philosophical innovation challenged this epistemological foundation.
Newton's position, especially defended by Voltaire, was central to the 18th-century philosophical shift (Shank, 2022). Newtonian epistemology relied on a new skepticism towards rationalist a priori narratives and on asserting empirical facts as valid understanding. 17th-century European natural philosophers dismissed Aristotle's metaphysics and physics, introducing a new mechanical causality that explained the world through mechanisms of inert matter. This approach led to the vortical account of celestial mechanics, where bodies swam in an ethereal sea that pushed and pulled objects. Shank (2022) mentions that, although the ethereal sea and other agents of the integral mechanical cosmos could not be observed, rationality dictated their existence to avoid reverting to hidden causes and Aristotelian teleological principles.
Discovering these mechanisms and their functioning was the task of 17th-century mechanical natural philosophy, with figures such as Descartes, Huygens, and Leibniz. Newton pointed natural philosophy in a new direction (Shank, 2022). Newton steered natural philosophy towards a mathematical analysis based on empirical facts, criticizing both Aristotelian philosophy and vortical mechanics for not strictly adhering to empirical facts. Newtonians argued that natural philosophy should focus on what is empirically demonstrable rather than rational imaginations. Furthermore, they argued that accepting empirical truth, though harsh, was not a philosophical failure but a display of rigor. According to Shank (2022), such epistemological battles intensified with Newton's theory of universal gravitation, which mathematically described the attraction between bodies based on their masses and distance between them.
In the 18th century, the mathematical and empirical description of moving bodies sparked philosophical debates. Critics like Leibniz argued that the mathematical description alone was insufficient to explain gravity. Newton's defenders, however, asserted that phenomenal descriptions were adequate as long as they were based on empirical facts. Although explanatory facts about gravity had not been established, they accepted Newton's theory. According to Shank (2022), Voltaire also participated in these debates, promoting Newtonian epistemology in France and Europe.
Both Hume and Voltaire shared skepticism towards rationalist philosophy and adopted the Newtonian criterion that considered empirical facts as the basis of philosophical truth (Shank, 2022). However, Hume's goal remained within traditional philosophy, and his contribution extended skepticism to the point of denying the viability of transcendental philosophy itself. This argument would awaken Kant's dogmatic slumbers and lead to the reconstitution of transcendental philosophy in new terms, but Voltaire had different fish to fry. According to Shank (2022), his attachment was to the new Newtonian empirical scientists, and although he himself was never more than a dilettante scientist, his devotion to this form of natural inquiry made him in some respects the leading philosophical defender and ideologue of the new empirical-scientific conception of philosophy that Newton initiated.
Voltaire, along with other 18th-century Newtonian thinkers, dedicated himself to defending empirical science as an alternative to traditional natural philosophy (Shank, 2022). Unlike Hume, Voltaire promoted empirical induction and experimental reasoning as the epistemological basis of modern enlightened philosophy. In his work "Candide," Voltaire criticized philosophical optimism, arguing that it resulted from disconnecting reason from empirical facts. As an alternative, he proposed a life focused on simple tasks with practical and useful purposes, aligning with the utilitarian discourse of the Newtonians. His public campaigns, including promoting inoculation against smallpox in his "Lettres philosophiques," were based on empirical facts to combat prejudices and pre-established understandings. According to Shank (2022), this approach reflected the profound influence of Newtonianism on his philosophy.
Towards Metaphysics-Free Science
Voltaire played a crucial role in the relationship between science and philosophy during the Enlightenment, criticizing metaphysics and advocating for its removal from science (Shank, 2022). At the heart of Newtonian innovations in natural philosophy was the argument that questions of the body per se were irrelevant or distracted from a well-focused natural science (Shank, 2022). Following Newton's ideas, Voltaire argued that physics should focus on measurable empirical effects, avoiding speculations about the invisible. According to Shank (2022), this removal of metaphysics from physics was fundamental to the overall Newtonian stance towards science, but no one fought more vigorously for it, or did more to clarify the distinction and give it a public hearing than Voltaire.
In the 1740s, Voltaire opposed Du Châtelet's efforts to reconcile Leibnizian metaphysics with Newtonian physics (Shank, 2022). During the same period, he published "Newton's Metaphysics," celebrating the absence of metaphysical speculations in Newton's work. He also accused Leibniz of being misled by his zeal to make metaphysics the basis of physics. According to Shank (2022), in the definitive 1745 edition of his "Éléments de la Philosophie de Newton," Voltaire also appended his treatise on Newton's metaphysics as the introduction to the book, thus framing his own understanding of the relationship between metaphysics and empirical science in direct opposition to Châtelet's Leibnizian understanding.
During the 1750s, Voltaire criticized Maupertuis for his turn towards metaphysical approaches in physics, vigorously defending the separation between metaphysical reasoning and scientific work (Shank, 2022). His approach significantly contributed to two subsequent philosophical trends: Kant's transcendental philosophy and the marginalization of metaphysics through philosophical positivism. Furthermore, his legacy consolidated the perception of a link between positivist science and secularization. Thus, according to Shank (2022), Voltaire must be recognized as the pioneer of a philosophical tradition extending from him to Auguste Comte and Charles Darwin, and then to Karl Popper and Richard Dawkins in the 20th century.
The Pseudonym "Voltaire"
The origin of the pseudonym "Voltaire," adopted by François-Marie Arouet in 1717, is the subject of multiple theories (Montagud Rubio, 2020). One version suggests it derives from the affectionate nickname "Petit Volontaire" used in his childhood. However, the most plausible hypothesis proposes that it is an anagram of "AROVET L(E) I(EUNE)," a stylized version of "Arouet, le Jeune." Other theories include: the name of a maternal fiefdom, a verbal phrase in Old French meaning "desired to silence," or a variation of "revoltair" (troublemaker). In any case, Montagud Rubio (2020) mentions that in 1717, young Arouet adopted the name Voltaire after an arrest, possibly combining several explanations.
References
Cartwright, M. (2023). Voltaire. World History Encyclopedia. https://www.worldhistory.org/Voltaire/
Montagud Rubio, N. (2020, noviembre 4). Montesquieu: Biografía de Este Filósofo Francés. Psicología y Mente. https://psicologiaymente.com/biografias/montesquieu
Shank, J. B. (2022). Voltaire. Stanford.edu. https://plato.stanford.edu/Entries/voltaire/#Lib
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