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伏尔泰-个人概述
伏尔泰雕像
伏尔泰原名F.M.阿鲁埃，1694年11月21日生于巴黎一个富裕的资产阶级家庭。伏尔泰在求学时期受到自由主义思潮、特别是P.贝勒反对宗教狂热著作的影响，中学毕业后致力于文学创作，发表揭露宫廷腐败和教会专横的讽刺诗，于1717年和1725年两次被投入巴士底狱，并从1726年起被迫流亡英国。在英国，伏尔泰努力学习英国资产阶级的先进思想，成为I.牛顿和J.洛克的信徒。他热情支持百科全书派的启蒙运动。反对封建专制制度，主张由开明的君主执政，强调资产阶级的自由和平等，批判天主教会的黑暗和腐朽。 伏尔泰与朋友联手细致地计算了政府发行的有奖抽签的中选概率，并发现国家发行的奖券隐含着一大漏洞：“如果买入奖券全额，你就可以中彩金100万里弗尔（货币计量单位）。” 于是，伏尔泰与朋友联手借款，用借到的钱买进了所有的奖券。得知事情详情的财政大臣立即命令停止支付奖金并状告伏尔泰及其朋友诈欺罪。虽然当时还是专制时代，但国家还是输掉了这场官司。 最后，伏尔泰及其朋友们共获得了50万里弗尔。
伏尔泰-生平简介
伏尔泰青年
伏尔泰出生在巴黎一个富裕的中产阶级家庭，父亲是一位法律公证人，母亲来自普瓦图省的一个贵族家庭。伏尔泰在三兄弟中排行最末。伏尔泰先后在巴黎耶稣会和路易大帝高中（Collège Louis-le-Grand）接受教育。据说伏尔泰非常聪明，3岁能够背诵文学名著，12岁能够作诗。在高中时代，伏尔泰便掌握了拉丁文和希腊文，后来更通晓意大利语、西班牙语和英语。1711年至1713年间攻读法律。投身文学之前，伏尔泰还为法国驻荷兰大使当过秘书，并与一名法国女子堕入爱河。两人私奔的计划被伏尔泰的父亲发现，被迫回国。
事实上，伏尔泰在高中毕业后便有从文的愿望，但他的父亲希望他读法律。伏尔泰假装在巴黎为一名律师担任助手，实际上大多数时间用在创作讽刺诗上。这件事很快被他父亲发现，将他送到外省（巴黎地区之外的地方）读法律。然而，伏尔泰坚持写作论文和作不太讲究考证的历史研究。伏尔泰的智慧很快就使他受不少贵族家庭的欢迎。伏尔泰的早期文学作品对王室及天主教会进行辛辣的讽刺，结果是多次的入狱及流亡。1717年，他因写讽刺诗影射宫廷的淫乱生活，被投入巴士底狱关押了11个月。在狱中，伏尔泰完成了他的第一部剧本：关于路易十五的摄政，菲利普二世（奥尔良公爵）的《俄狄浦斯王》（Œdipe）。这部作品中，他首次使用了“伏尔泰”作为笔名，这来自他在法国南部的故乡一座城堡的名字。出狱不久，剧本在巴黎上演，使他在文学界大露头角。1726年，伏尔泰因遭诬告再次入狱，出狱后，伏尔泰被驱逐出境，流亡英国。
伏尔泰在英国流亡期间 (1726年-1728年) 对当地的政治、社会、宗教、科学等状况非常感兴趣。他详细考察了君主立宪的政治制度，深入研究了洛克的哲学著作和牛顿的科学成果，形成了反对封建专制主义的政治主张和自然神论的哲学观点。
伏案工作的伏尔泰
回国后，伏尔泰发表了《英国书信集》 (英语：Letters Concerning the English Nation，法文：Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais) ，宣扬英国资产阶级革命后的成就，抨击法国的专制政体。书信集出版后即被查禁，巴黎法院下令逮捕作者。他逃至女友夏特莱侯爵夫人 在西雷村的庄园，隐居14年。这期间他一度被宫廷任命为史官，并于1746年当选为法兰西学院院士。
伏尔泰结束流亡回到法国以后不久便开始与夏特莱侯爵夫人（Marquise du Châtelet, Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil）长达十五年的爱情关系。除了哲学上的讨论以外，他们在同居处设立物理实验室，一起研读牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》，并且夏特莱侯爵夫人是最早把《自然哲学的数学原理》从拉丁文翻译成法文的人。
1749年，夏特莱侯爵夫人 逝世。1750年，想在政治上有所作为的伏尔泰应当时普鲁士国王腓特烈二世（腓特烈大帝）邀请到柏林，得到了一个不错的职位，la clef de chambellan以及很好的待遇。他作为一名哲学家，与法语说的近乎完美的国王建立了友谊。但是这两位朋友没有能够长时间地互相包容对方的主要特点，前者拥有高超的智力与犀利的性格，后者喜怒无常，习惯于别人的唯命是从。分歧的扩大不可避免，并且在1753年，伏尔泰与Maupertuis发生争吵，后者支持国王。这一事件导致了他与国王关系的破裂，并促使他离开普鲁士。他在居留柏林时期最重要的出版著作是《路易十四的世纪》（LE SIECLE DE LOUIS XIV)。
伏尔泰死前几年就经常被公认是启蒙时代最主要的哲学家，受到法国大多数人民的爱戴。
伏尔泰-职业生涯
伏尔泰画像
伏尔泰于1729年回到法国，积极开展启蒙宣传活动。他在1730～1732年，连续发表了悲剧《布鲁杜斯》、历史著作《查理十二史》，对宗教偏执和封建专制主义作了尖锐的揭露和抨击。1734年伏尔泰发表了《哲学通信》，全面论述了他的哲学和政治思想。这一重要著作出版后，立即遭到查禁，伏尔泰被迫逃亡到洛兰省边境的西雷城堡。在那里，伏尔泰住了15年，完成了大量著述。主要哲学专著有：《形而上学论》、《牛顿哲学原理》等。1750年，伏尔泰应弗里德里希二世之邀，怀着劝说这位普鲁士王推行开明政治的幻想来到柏林，在德国逗留了四、五年。这期间他出版了重要史学专著《路易十四朝纪事》，系统地论述了他关于实行开明君主制度的政治主张。但是，当伏尔泰终于认识到自己被这位伪善的专制君主欺骗和利用以后，便于1755年不辞而别，到法国和瑞士边境一个偏僻地方凡尔那购置地产定居下来。从此，伏尔泰开始了反封建战斗生活的新阶段。他加强了与国内外著名学者的联系，热情支持百科全书派的D.狄德罗等新一代启蒙学者，利用各种斗争形式抨击宗教狂热和封建王朝的罪行，推动了为民主自由而进行的斗争。这一时期他除继续创作一系列戏剧作品外，还完成了历史著作《彼得大帝治下的俄罗斯》、《议会史》，哲理诗《里斯本的灾难》，哲理小说《老实人》、 《天真汉》等。
随着启蒙运动的深入发展，伏尔泰的声望愈来愈高。1778年为出席他的悲剧《伊雷娜》的首次公演而重返巴黎，受到人民群众盛大欢迎，最终确立了他在18世纪法国启蒙运动中的崇高地位。同年5月30日逝世。
伏尔泰-个人作品
《哲学通信》
《哲学辞典》（Dictionnaire philosophique）
《哲学通信》
《关于英吉利国的书信》（Letters Concerning the English Nation）
《论宽容》（Traité sur la tolérance）
《形而上学论》《牛顿哲学原理》等著作，其中最有影响的一本书是《哲学通信》被人称为“投向旧制度的第一颗炸弹”。
小说
《憨第德》（Candide，又译《老实人》）
《天真汉》
戏剧
Oedipe 《欧第伯》
La Henriade
《赵氏孤儿》（翻译）
史诗《亨利亚德》《奥尔良少女》
历史著作有《查理十二史》（１７３１）、《路易十四时代》（１７５１）和《风俗论》（１７５６）等
伏尔泰-个人荣誉
伏尔泰在朗诵自己的作品
伏尔泰的文学观点和趣味，基本上承袭了17世纪古典主义的余风，主要表现在诗歌和悲剧创作上。伏尔泰文学作品中最有价值的是哲理小说。这是他开创的一种新体裁，用戏谑的笔调讲述荒诞不经的故事，影射和讽刺现实，阐明深刻的哲理。在《查第格或命运》中，伏尔泰借助查第格的不幸遭遇揭露专制统治的黑暗，又以查第格的命运展示人类经历的各种苦难最终会得到报偿。在《老实人或乐观主义》中，老实人及其意中人和他的老师在遭遇一系列无妄之灾后，终于认识到这个世界并不完善，唯有“工作可以使我们免除烦闷、纵欲和饥寒三大害处”。小说还写了一个政治清明、黄金遍地的奇异国土，寄托了伏尔泰的政治理想。伏尔泰写了50多部剧本，其中大部分是悲剧。伏尔泰推崇中国文明。根据元人纪君祥的杂剧《赵氏孤儿》的法译本，他写了一部悲剧《中国孤儿》。他把故事挪到成吉思汗时代，写中华民族的智慧和德行，最终感动了中国少数民族的领袖成吉思汗，使他制止屠杀，成为贤明的君主。
伏尔泰-主张观点
伏尔泰与菲特烈
伏尔泰反对君主制度，提倡自然神论，批判天主教会，主张言论自由。他很有名的一句话：“我并不同意你的观点，但是我誓死捍卫你说话的权利。（法文：Je ne suis pas d'accord avec ce que vous dites, mais je me battrai jusqu'à la mort pour que vous ayez le droit de le dire. 英文：I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.）”代表了他对于言论自由的主张（一说认为伏尔泰并没有说这句话，而是Evelyn Beatrice Hall于1906年出版传记《伏尔泰的朋友们》中表达伏尔泰主张时所记下的）
伏尔泰欣赏中国孔子，因为孔子是用道德的说服力来影响别人，而不是用宗教的狂热和个人崇拜。崇拜中国儒家思想，并将中国的政治体制视为最完美的政治体制。因为中国的文官制度能让下层阶级人民得以晋升为统治阶层，但他对中国的认知浅薄，令他对中国始终拥有完美形象。他视孔子为真正的哲学家，他曾说“那个圣人是孔夫子，他自视清高，是人类的立法者，决不会欺骗人类。没有任何立法者比孔夫子曾对世界宣布了更有用的真理”
伏尔泰尖刻地抨击天主教会的黑暗统治。他把教皇比作“两足禽兽”，把教士称作“文明恶棍”，说天主教是“一些狡猾的人布置的一个最可耻的骗人罗网”。他号召“每个人都按照自己的方式同骇人听闻的宗教狂热作斗争，一些人咬住他的耳朵；另一些人踩住他的肚子，还有一些人从远处痛骂他。”
他曾公开嘲笑艾萨克 牛顿（Sir Isaac Newton）。有一天，牛顿根据但以理书十二章4节和那鸿书二章4节作出一个预言：“有朝一日，人类将能够以每小时 40 英里的速度前进。”伏尔泰回应：“你看，基督教可以让聪明如牛顿这样的人变得如此的愚笨。他难道不知道如果一个人以每小时 40 英里的速度前进，他将会窒息，而他的心脏会停止跳动吗？”
不过伏尔泰并不是一个无神论者，而是一个自然神论者，提倡对不同的宗教信仰采取宽容的态度，终生与宗教偏见作斗争，但又认为宗教作为抑制人类情欲和恶习的手段是必不可少的。他认为要统治人民；宗教是不可缺少的。他说“即使没有上帝；也要造出一个上帝来”。
伏尔泰信奉自然权利说，认为“人们本质上是平等的”，要求人人享有“自然权利”。他主张人人在法律面前平等，但又认为财产权利的不平等是不可避免的。他把英国的君主立宪制理想化了，认为最理想的是由“开明”的君主按哲学家的意见来治理国家。伏尔泰在启蒙运动的思想家中，反映上层资产阶级的利益，主张开明君主制。他在哲学上信奉英国唯物主义哲学家洛克的经验论。
在哲学上，他承认物质世界的客观存在，肯定认识采源于感觉经验，但他又认为神是宇宙的“第一推动者”。他对劳动人民是十分鄙视的，认为他们只能干粗活，不能思考，说“当庶民都思考时，那一切都完了”。
伏尔泰在反封建的启蒙运动中作出的巨大的贡献，是值得人们永远纪念的。
伏尔泰-社会影响
《伏尔泰坐像》
伏尔泰所坚持的哲学观点，是自然神论形态的唯物主义。这种哲学的基本内容，是从洛克那里接受的经验论，承认外部世界的客观存在，承认外物作用于感官所产生的经验是认识的来源。伏尔泰虽然对于洛克的学说没有多少推进，但是他在克服洛克“内省经验”的唯物主义不彻底性的同时，却发挥了这个学说的战斗性。一方面，他批判了G.W.莱布尼茨为宗教神学张目的“前定和谐”论和R.笛卡尔的“天赋观念”论，又反对G.巴克莱“存在即被感知”的主观唯心论。另一方面，他从唯物主义经验论出发，否定了宗教神学关于灵魂不灭并可脱离肉体而存在的教义。他在接受牛顿关于自然界都受引力定律统一支配时，没有陷入宿命论，反而批评宿命论和绝对机械决定论，从而为政治上争取个人自由确立了理论根据。根据这种哲学观点，伏尔泰无情地揭露和抨击了教会的黑暗和反动。
伏尔泰认为宗教迷误和教会统治是人类理性的主要敌人，一切社会罪恶都源于教会散布的蒙昧主义，是它造成了社会上普遍的愚昧和宗教狂热。虽然他没有真正弄清宗教产生的社会历史根源和阶级根源，只是比较肤浅地把宗教产生的原因归结为人们的无知和僧侣的欺骗，但是他从人类理性和历史事实两个方面对宗教教义的荒诞不经和教权主义罪恶的揭露和批判还是相当深刻的。他指出，基督耶稣不过是一个凡人，《圣经》不过是一些荒诞透顶的神话故事，而一部教会史就是充满迫害、抢劫、谋杀的罪恶史。因而，他针对教会提出了著名的战斗口号：“打倒丑类”，在团结反宗教力量方面起了重要作用。
伏尔泰-人物评价
在伏尔泰的主要活动时期，封建势力很强大，法国资产阶级处于相对劣势，这决定了他的思想的时代局限性。在哲学上，他始终没有摆脱神，还没有达到公开的唯物论和无神论；在历史观方面，他宣传抽象的民主、自由、平等，以救世主自居，蔑视群众，没有摆脱历史唯心论；在政治方面，他在揭露封建专制制度时，对共和思想持暧昧态度，长期幻想依靠开明君主实行自上而下的改革。
伏尔泰-名言名句
我可能不同意你的观点,但我誓死捍卫你说话的权利
人类最宝贵的财产——自由。
书读得多而不思考，你会觉得自己知道的很多。书读得多而思考，你会觉得自己不懂的越多。
伟大的事业需要始终不渝的精神。
这里是我的心脏，但到处是我的精神
即使没有上帝,也要创造一位上帝
神谕的最了不起的作用在于保证战争的胜利
预言从来都只是为大人物而作的，小民无此必要
任何人想以道理晓喻他的同胞，都会受到迫害，除非他是最强者。然而最强者却几乎总是加强无知的锁链，而不是去把它砸断。
图书馆是人类知识与谬误的宝库
坚强的信心,能使平凡的人做出惊人的事业。
无论天资有多麽高,他仍需学会了技巧来发挥那些天资
一个家庭没有书籍,如同这个房间没有窗户
伏尔泰与中国
伏尔泰推崇中国文明。他认真研究了中国的儒家思想。热情歌颂中国是一个理性主义国家。他根据元杂剧《赵氏孤儿》的法译本，写了一部悲剧《中国的孤儿》，赞扬了中华民族的智慧和德行，在法国引起了很大反响. <<关于中国礼仪的争论 这些争论怎样促使中国取缔基督教>>出现在其著作<<路易十四时代>>最后一章.
伏尔泰-伏尔泰的故事
注：本故事见房龙的《宽容》。
伏尔泰晚年定居在法国和瑞士边境的费尔奈庄园。其间，法国发生宗教上的派性斗争，造成大批逃亡者。伏尔泰在自己的庄园内，先后收留过上百户难民。他还多次打抱不平，替穷苦人伸张正义，平反冤案。影响最大的一次，莫过于卡拉事件。1761年10月13日，图卢兹市菲拉蒂埃街的一个住家发生了一场可怕的悲剧。这家的主人让·卡拉是颇受人尊敬的胡格诺派（新教的加尔文派）的商人。
当天深夜，让·卡拉发现长子马克—安东尼在店铺悬梁自尽，一时全家慌了手脚，母亲失声痛哭，惊动四邻。突然，在围观的人群中有人说道：“马克—安东尼是被他父母杀死的，因为他选择了天主教。”天主教与新教经历了16世纪的宗教战争，至今已有两百多年，但对立依然十分尖锐。
图卢兹一位法官（注意：是法官，不是教会）闻讯赶来，一不调查，二不审讯，甚至连现场也没看上一眼，便将“谋杀”事件那天晚上在家的人全部拘捕归案。
马克—安东尼为什么自杀？（既未调查清楚，怎敢说他就是自杀？）原来，这位28岁的青年曾学过法律，一心想当律师，但因无法弄到天主教徒的证明书，被迫从事商业。他想从父亲那儿得到一笔钱作生意，遭父亲拒绝，失望之余，天天上咖啡馆借酒浇愁，后因债务缠身，更觉前途渺茫，一念之差便寻了短见。
头发斑白、年近古稀的老人怎能吊死一个年轻力壮的小伙子？（上文既说他是自杀，这里又为何要怀疑是他杀？）“谋杀”之罪显然难以成立。检察官（不是教会）迪库大义凛然，出庭替老卡拉辩护，却被停职三个月。律师（不是教会）絮德尔想阐明事实真相，但陷入狂热兴奋中的法官（不是教会）却不屑一听，反倒认为这位律师无能。审判长（不是教会）滥施权力，逼迫卡拉供出同谋，卡拉义正辞严，断然地说：“既然没有犯罪，何来同谋？”
1762年3月10日，法庭不顾一切无罪的证据，粗暴地判决卡拉车裂之刑。临刑前，老卡拉（新教徒）悲愤地说：“我已经说明真相，我死得无辜……”
事发不久，伏尔泰便听到各种传闻。他对教会（上文一直说的是法官、法院，怎么突然出现了教会？）历来持怀疑态度，认为无论天主教还是新教，都是无耻之徒。（那他还为何为新教徒辩护？卡拉是新教徒）
卡拉老汉的悲惨遭遇，激起了他对教会（是教会审理这个案件吗？）和司法当局的无比愤慨，他决心为维护人的尊严、为争取信仰自由而奋斗。（这个案件涉及到信仰自由了吗？）
他通过各种渠道，沉着冷静地亲自调查和搜集证据，并将被流放到日内瓦的卡拉的两个儿子召到费尔奈，根据他们两人提供的详情和从过往旅客中听到的反映加以比较，从而对整个事件作出个人的判断。其间，他发表了卡拉两兄弟的口供，写了揭露这起惨无人道的冤案的小册子，并为卡拉太太提供一切费用，把她接到巴黎，以引起舆论的注意。1763年2月3日，伏尔泰亲自写了上诉书，作出“我敢肯定这家人无辜”的结论。3月7日，枢密院下令重审此案，蒙受不白之冤的卡拉老汉及其一家终于得到昭雪。
（这个故事的不合情理与不合逻辑之处，请大家仔细思考。此人写这个故事，目的是为了说明什么？是为了反对基督教吗？那为何又说伏尔泰提倡信仰自由？是为了反对教会吗？可是根本没有提说教会审理此案，而且教会根本无权审理民事和刑事案件。）
Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Émilie du Châtelet) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
Early career
François Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children (only three of whom survived) of François Arouet (1650 – 1 January 1722), a notary who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite d'Aumart (ca. 1660 – 13 July 1701), from a noble family of the province of Poitou. Voltaire was educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704–1711), where he learned Latin and Greek; later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish and English.
By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a notary. Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father found him out, he sent Voltaire to study law, this time in Caen (Normandy). Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. His father then obtained a job for him as a secretary to the French ambassador in the Netherlands, where Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous elopement was foiled by Voltaire's father and he was forced to return to France.
Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for even mild critiques of the government and the Catholic Church. These activities were to result in numerous imprisonments and exiles. One satirical verse about the Régent thought to be by him led to his imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months, until the real author came forward. While there, he wrote his debut play, Œdipe. Its success established his reputation.
The name "Voltaire"
The name "Voltaire", which the author adopted in 1718, is an anagram of "AROVET LI," the Latinized spelling of his surname, Arouet, and the initial letters of "le jeune" ("the younger"). The name also echoes in reverse order the syllables of the name of a family château in the Poitou region: "Airvault". The adoption of the name "Voltaire" following his incarceration at the Bastille is seen by many to mark Voltaire's formal separation from his family and his past.
Richard Holmes supports this derivation of the name, but adds that a writer such as Voltaire would have intended it to also convey its connotations of speed and daring. These come from associations with words such as "voltige" (acrobatics on a trapeze or horse), "volte-face" (a spinning about to face one's enemies), and "volatile" (originally, any winged creature). "Arouet" was not a noble name fit for his growing reputation, especially given that name's resonance with "à rouer" ("for thrashing") and "roué" (a "débauché").
In a letter to Jean-Baptiste Rousseau (not to be confused with Jean-Jacques Rousseau) in March 1719, Voltaire concludes by asking that if Rousseau wishes to send him a return letter, he do so by addressing it to Monsieur de Voltaire. A post-scriptum explains: "J'ai été si malheureux sous le nom d'Arouet que j'en ai pris un autre surtout pour n'être plus confondu avec le poète Roi", which translates as, "I was so unhappy under the name d'Arouet that I took another, primarily so that I would cease to be confused with the poet Roi." This probably refers to Adenes le Roi, and the 'oi' diphthong was then pronounced as modern French pronounces 'ai', so the similarity to 'Arouet' is clear, and thus, it could well have been part of his rationale. Indeed, Voltaire is additionally known to have used at least 178 separate pen names during his lifetime.
Great Britain
The aptitude for quick, perceptive, cutting and witty critical repartee for which Voltaire is known today made him highly unpopular with some of his contemporaries, including certain members of the French aristocracy. These sharp-tongued retorts were responsible for Voltaire's exile from France, during which he resided in Great Britain.
After Voltaire retorted to an insult given to him by the young French nobleman Chevalier de Rohan in late 1725, the aristocratic Rohan family obtained a royal lettre de cachet, an irrevocable and often arbitrary penal decree signed by the French King (Louis XV, in the time of Voltaire) that was often bought by members of the wealthy nobility to dispose of undesirables. They then used this warrant to force Voltaire into imprisonment in the Bastille without holding a trial or giving him an opportunity to defend himself. Fearing an indefinite prison sentence, Voltaire suggested his own exile to England as an alternative punishment, an idea the French authorities accepted. This incident marked the beginning of Voltaire's attempts to improve the French judicial system.
Voltaire's exile in Great Britain lasted nearly three years, and his experiences there greatly influenced many of his ideas. The young man was intrigued by Britain's constitutional monarchy in contrast to the French absolute monarchy, as well as the country's relative support of the freedoms of speech and religion. He was also influenced by several of the neoclassical writers of the age, and developed an interest in earlier English literature, especially the works of Shakespeare, still little known in continental Europe at the time. Despite pointing out his deviations from neoclassical standards, Voltaire saw Shakespeare as an example French writers might look up to, since drama in France, despite being more polished, lacked on-stage action. Later, however, as Shakespeare's influence was being increasingly felt in France, Voltaire would endeavour to set a contrary example with his own plays, decrying what he considered Shakespeare's barbarities.
After almost three years in exile, Voltaire returned to Paris and published his views on British attitudes towards government, literature, and religion in a collection of essays in letter form entitled the Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (Philosophical Letters on the English). Because he regarded the British constitutional monarchy as more developed and more respectful of human rights (particularly religious tolerance) than its French counterpart, these letters met great controversy in France, to the point where the book was burnt and Voltaire was forced again to flee.
Château de Cirey
In the frontispiece to their translation of Newton, Émilie du Châtelet appears as Voltaire's muse, reflecting Newton's heavenly insights down to Voltaire.
Voltaire's next destination was the Château de Cirey, located on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine. The building was renovated with his money, and here he began a relationship with the Marquise du Châtelet, Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil (famous in her own right as Émilie du Châtelet). Cirey was owned by the Marquise's husband, Marquis Florent-Claude du Chatelet, who sometimes visited his wife and her lover at the chateau. The relationship, which lasted for fifteen years, had a significant intellectual element. Voltaire and the Marquise collected over 21,000 books, an enormous number for the time. Together, they studied these books and performed experiments in the "natural sciences" in his laboratory. Voltaire's experiments included an attempt to determine the elements of fire.
Having learned from his previous brushes with the authorities, Voltaire began his future habit of keeping out of personal harm's way, and denying any awkward responsibility. He continued to write many plays, such as Mérope (or "La Mérope française") and began his long researches into science and history. Again, a main source of inspiration for Voltaire were the years of his British exile, during which he had been strongly influenced by the works of Sir Isaac Newton. Voltaire strongly believed in Newton's theories, especially concerning optics (Newton’s discovery that white light is composed of all the colours in the spectrum led to many experiments at Cirey), and gravity (Voltaire is the source of the famous story of Newton and the apple falling from the tree, which he had learned from Newton's niece in London and first mentioned in his Essai sur la poésie épique, or Essay on Epic Poetry). Although both Voltaire and the Marquise were curious about the philosophies of Gottfried Leibniz, a contemporary and rival of Newton, they remained essentially "Newtonians", despite the Marquise's adoption of certain aspects of Leibniz's arguments against Newton. She translated Newton's Latin Principia in full, adjusting a few errors along the way, and hers remained the definitive French translation well into the 20th century. Voltaire's book Eléments de la philosophie de Newton (Elements of Newton's Philosophy), which was probably co-written with the Marquise, made Newton accessible to a far greater public. It is often considered the work that finally brought about general acceptance of Newton's optical and gravitational theories.
Voltaire and the Marquise also studied history—particularly those persons who had contributed to civilization. Voltaire's second essay in English had been Essay upon the Civil Wars in France. It was followed by La Henriade, an epic poem on the French king Henri IV, glorifying his attempt to end the Catholic-Protestant massacres with the Edict of Nantes, and by a historical novel on King Charles XII of Sweden. These, along with his Letters on England mark the beginning of Voltaire's open criticism of intolerance and established religions. Voltaire and the Marquise also worked with philosophy, particularly with metaphysics, the branch of philosophy that deals with being, and what is beyond the material realm such as whether or not there is a God or souls, etc. Voltaire and the Marquise analyzed the Bible, trying to discover its validity in their time. Voltaire's critical views on religion are reflected in his belief in separation of church and state and religious freedom, ideas that he had formed after his stay in England.
Though deeply committed to the Marquise, Voltaire by 1744 found life at the château confining. On a visit to Paris that year, he found a new love: his niece. At first, his attraction to Marie Louise Mignot was clearly sexual, as evidenced by his letters to her (only discovered in 1937). Much later, they lived together, perhaps platonically, and remained together until Voltaire's death. Meanwhile, the Marquise also took a lover, the Marquis de Saint-Lambert.
Sanssouci
Die Tafelrunde by Adolph von Menzel. Guests of Frederick the Great, in Marble Hall at Sanssouci, include members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences and Voltaire (seated, third from left).
After the death of the Marquise in childbirth in September 1749, Voltaire briefly returned to Paris and in 1750 moved to Potsdam to join Frederick the Great, a close friend and admirer of his. The king had repeatedly invited him to his palace, and now gave him a salary of 20,000 francs a year. Though life went well at first—in 1752 he wrote Micromégas, perhaps the first piece of science fiction involving ambassadors from another planet witnessing the follies of humankind—his relationship with Frederick the Great began to deteriorate and he encountered other difficulties. An argument with Maupertuis, the president of the Berlin Academy of Science, provoked Voltaire's Diatribe du docteur Akakia (Diatribe of Doctor Akakia), which satirized some of Maupertuis' theories and his abuse of power in his persecutions of a mutual acquaintance, Samuel Koënig. This greatly angered Frederick, who had all copies of the document burned and arrested Voltaire at an inn where he was staying along his journey home.
Geneva and Ferney
Voltaire headed toward Paris, but Louis XV banned him from the city, so instead he turned to Geneva, near which he bought a large estate (Les Délices). Though he was received openly at first, the law in Geneva which banned theatrical performances and the publication of The Maid of Orleans against his will made him move at the end of 1758 out of Geneva across the French border to Ferney, where he had bought an even larger estate, and led to Voltaire's writing of Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism) in 1759. This satire on Leibniz's philosophy of optimistic determinism remains the work for which Voltaire is perhaps best known. He would stay in Ferney for most of the remaining 20 years of his life, frequently entertaining distinguished guests, like James Boswell, Giacomo Casanova, and Edward Gibbon. In 1764 he published his most important philosophical work, the Dictionnaire Philosophique, a series of articles mainly on Christian history and dogmas, a few of which were originally written in Berlin.
Voltaire's château at Ferney, France.
From 1762 he began to champion unjustly persecuted people, the case of Jean Calas being the most celebrated. This Huguenot merchant had been tortured to death in 1763, supposedly because he had murdered his son for wanting to convert to Catholicism. His possessions were confiscated and his remaining children were taken from his widow and were forced to become members of a monastery. Voltaire, seeing this as a clear case of religious persecution, managed to overturn the conviction in 1765.
Death and burial
The Paris house in which Voltaire died
In February 1778, Voltaire returned for the first time in 20 years to Paris, among other reasons to see the opening of his latest tragedy, Irene. The 5-day journey was too much for the 83-year old, and he believed he was about to die on February 28, writing "I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition." However, he recovered, and in March saw a performance of Irene where he was treated by the audience as a returning hero. He soon became ill again and died on 30 May 1778. His last words were: "For God's sake, let me die in peace."
Voltaire's tomb in Paris' Pantheon
Because of his well-known criticism of the church, which he had refused to retract before his death, Voltaire was denied a Christian burial, but friends managed to bury his body secretly at the abbey of Scellières in Champagne before this prohibition had been announced. His heart and brain were embalmed separately. On 11 July 1791, the National Assembly, which regarded him as a forerunner of the French revolution, had his remains brought back to Paris to enshrine him in the Panthéon. It is estimated that a million people attended the procession, which stretched throughout Paris. There was an elaborate ceremony, complete with an orchestra, and the music included a piece that André Grétry composed specially for the event, which included a part for the "tuba curva". This was an instrument that originated in Roman times as the cornu but had been recently revived under a new name.
A widely repeated story that the remains of Voltaire were stolen by religious fanatics in 1814 or 1821 during the Pantheon restoration and thrown into a garbage heap is false. Such rumours resulted in the coffin being opened in 1897, which confirmed that his remains were still present.
Writings
History
Voltaire had an enormous influence on the development of historiography through his demonstration of fresh new ways to look at the past. His best-known histories are The Age of Louis XIV (1752), and Essay on the Customs and the Spirit of the Nations (1756). He broke from the tradition of narrating diplomatic and military events, and emphasized customs, social history and achievements in the arts and sciences. The Essay on customs traced the progress of world civilization in a universal context, thereby rejecting both nationalism and the traditional Christian frame of reference. Influenced by Bossuet's Discourse on the Universal history (1682), he was the first scholar to make a serious attempt to write the history of the world, eliminating theological frameworks, and emphasizing economics, culture and political history. He treated Europe as a whole, rather than a collection of nations. He was the first to emphasize the debt of medieval culture to Arab civilization, but otherwise was weak on the Middle Ages. Although he repeatedly warned against political bias on the part of the historian, he did not miss many opportunities to ridicule the Catholic Church. Voltaire advised scholars that anything contradicting the normal course of nature was not to be believed. Although he found evil in the historical record, he fervently believed reason and educating the illiterate masses would lead to progress.
Voltaire explains his view of historiography in his article on "History" in Diderot's Encyclopédie:
"One demands of modern historians more details, better ascertained facts, precise dates, more attention to customs, laws, mores, commerce, finance, agriculture, population."
Voltaire's histories imposed the values of the Enlightenment on the past, but he helped free historiography from antiquarianism, Eurocentrism, and a concentration on great men, diplomacy, and warfare.
Poetry
From an early age, Voltaire displayed a talent for writing verse and his first published work was poetry. He wrote two book-long epic poems, including the first ever written in French, the Henriade, and later, The Maid of Orleans, besides many other smaller pieces.
The Henriade was written in imitation of Virgil, using the Alexandrine couplet reformed and rendered monotonous for modern readers but it was a huge success in the 18th and early 19th century, with sixty-five editions and translations into several languages. The epic poem transformed French King Henry IV into a national hero for his attempts at instituting tolerance with his Edict of Nantes. La Pucelle, on the other hand, is a burlesque on the superhuman powers attributed to virginity in the legend of Joan of Arc. Voltaire's minor poems are generally considered superior to either of these two works.
Opening of Voltaire's grave, 1899
Prose
Frontispiece and first page of chapter one of an early English translation by T. Smollett et al. of Voltaire's "Candide", printed by J. Newbery, 1762
Many of Voltaire's prose works and romances, usually composed as pamphlets, were written as polemics. Candide attacks the passivity inspired by Leibniz's philosophy of optimism; L'Homme aux quarante ecus (The Man of Forty Crowns), certain social and political ways of the time; Zadig and others, the received forms of moral and metaphysical orthodoxy; and some were written to deride the Bible. In these works, Voltaire's ironic style, free of exaggeration, is apparent, particularly the restraint and simplicity of the verbal treatment. Candide in particular is the best example of his style. Voltaire also has, in common with Jonathan Swift, the distinction of paving the way for science fiction's philosophical irony, particularly in his Micromégas.
Voltaire at Frederick the Great's Sanssouci. Engraving by Pierre Charles Baquoy.
In general criticism and miscellaneous writing, Voltaire's writing was comparable to his other works. Almost all of his more substantive works, whether in verse or prose, are preceded by prefaces of one sort or another, which are models of his caustic yet conversational tone. In a vast variety of nondescript pamphlets and writings, he displays his skills at journalism. In pure literary criticism his principal work is the Commentaire sur Corneille, although he wrote many more similar works – sometimes (as in his Life and notices of Molière) independently and sometimes as part of his Siècles.
Voltaire's works, especially his private letters, frequently contain the word "l'infâme" and the expression "écrasez l'infâme," or "crush the infamous". The phrase refers to abuses to the people by royalty and the clergy that Voltaire saw around him, and the superstition and intolerance that the clergy bred within the people. He had felt these effects in his own exiles, in the confiscations of his books, and the hideous sufferings of Calas and La Barre. He also stated that (one of his most famous quotes) "Superstition sets the whole world in flames; philosophy quenches them".
The most oft-cited Voltaire quotation is apocryphal. He is incorrectly credited with writing, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” These were not his words, but rather those of Evelyn Beatrice Hall, written under the pseudonym S. G. Tallentyre in her 1906 biographical book The Friends of Voltaire. Hall intended to summarize in her own words Voltaire's attitude towards Claude Adrien Helvétius and his controversial book De l'esprit, but her first-person expression was mistaken for an actual quotation from Voltaire. Her interpretation does capture the spirit of Voltaire’s attitude towards Helvetius; it had been said Hall's summary was inspired by a quotation found in a 1770 Voltaire letter to an Abbot le Roche, in which he was reported to have said, “I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write.” Nevertheless, scholars believe there must have again been misinterpretation, as the letter does not seem to contain any such quote.
Voltaire's first major philosophical work in his battle against "l'infâme" was the Treatise on Tolerance, exposing the Calas affair, along with the tolerance exercised by other faiths and in other eras (for example, by the Jews, the Romans, the Greeks and the Chinese). Then, in his Dictionnaire philosophique, containing such articles as "Abraham", "Genesis", "Church Council", he wrote about what he perceived as the human origins of dogmas and beliefs, as well as inhuman behavior of religious and political institutions in shedding blood over the quarrels of competing sects.
Amongst other targets, Voltaire criticized France's colonial policy in North America, dismissing the vast territory of New France as "a few acres of snow" ("quelques arpents de neige").
Letters
Voltaire also engaged in an enormous amount of private correspondence during his life, totaling over 20,000 letters. Theodore Besterman's collected edition of these letters, completed only in 1964, fills 102 volumes. One historian called the letters "a feast not only of wit and eloquence but of warm friendship, humane feeling, and incisive thought."
Philosophy
Religion
Voltaire at 70. Engraving from 1843 edition of his Philosophical Dictionary.
Voltaire did not believe that any single religious text or tradition of revelation was needed to believe in God. Voltaire's focus was rather on the idea of a universe based on reason and a respect for nature which reflected the contemporary pantheism.
Like other key thinkers during the European Enlightenment, Voltaire considered himself a deist, expressing the idea: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."
As for religious texts, Voltaire's opinion of the Bible was mixed. Although influenced by Socinian works such as the Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum, Voltaire's skeptical attitude to the Bible separated him from Unitarian theologians like Fausto Sozzini or even Biblical-political writers like John Locke.
This did not hinder his religious practice, though it did win for him a bad reputation among religious fundamentalists. The deeply Catholic Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote to his father the year of Voltaire's death, saying, "The arch-scoundrel Voltaire has finally kicked the bucket...."
Views of Islam and its prophet, Muhammad, can be found in Voltaire's writings. In a letter recommending his play Fanaticism, or Mahomet to Pope Benedict XIV, Voltaire described the founder of Islam as "the founder of a false and barbarous sect" and "a false prophet." Later, his views were more generous, often praising the relative tolerance of Muslim behavior in the lands they conquered (as opposed to the Christian Inquisitions) and the fact that its doctrines were written by its founder himself, not based on hearsay, and had not endured the innumerable changes Christian doctrine had. His Essai sur les Moeurs et l'Esprit des Nations, contains much fuller accounts on Muhammad and the founding and spread of his religion as do a number of his polemical works on religion.
From translated works on Confucianism and Legalism, Voltaire drew on Chinese concepts of politics and philosophy (which were based on rational principles), to look critically at European organized religion and hereditary aristocracy.
There is an apocryphal story that his home at Ferney was purchased by the Geneva Bible Society and used for printing Bibles, but this appears to be due to a misunderstanding of the 1849 annual report of the American Bible Society. Voltaire's chateau is now owned and administered by the French Ministry of Culture.
In the Scottish Enlightenment the Scots began developing a uniquely practical branch of humanism to the extent that Voltaire said "We look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilisation".
In a letter to Frederick II, King of Prussia, dated 5 January 1767 he wrote that,
“ Le christianisme est la plus ridicule, la religion la plus absurde et sanglante qui ait jamais infecté le monde.
(Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that ever infected the world.) ”
Attitude toward Jews
Though many books have been written taxing Voltaire with anti-semitism, they do not explain, nor usually even mention, the numerous pamphlets he wrote attacking anti-semitism itself. This apparent contradiction led many to conclude that his remarks were in fact anti-Biblical and not anti-semitic. His "Sermon du rabbin Akib", for example, is a scathing attack on Christian persecution of the Jews, and similar remarks can be found scattered throughout his 200-odd pamphlets and books on religion.
It has been pointed out that thirty of the 118 articles in his Dictionnaire Philosophique described the ancient Jews in consistently negative ways, as barbarous, absurd and deeply superstitious; however, this ignores his qualifiers, in which he points out that "all of antiquity was", as a rule.
Peter Gay, the best known contemporary authority on the Enlightenment, wrote that "Voltaire struck at the Jews to strike at Christianity," a view shared by certain leading Jewish Voltairians—indeed, the point usually is, if the Jews were cruel and absurd, what can be made of other faiths that declare their histories sacred, yet persecute them? "When I see Christians cursing Jews," he wrote in his English Notebook, "methinks I see children beating their fathers." And posing as a freshly minted Spanish priest in Les Questions de Zapata, he asks his superiors how he should go about explaining that the Jews, whom they burn by the hundreds, were the chosen people of God for four thousand years, and why we chant their prayers while burning them. Voltaire grew exceedingly vocal against the Church during the campaign for tolerance of his later years, openly writing that it had been the "consistently implacable enemy of progress, decency, humanity and rationality" and that it had been the Church's interest to "keep people as ignorant and submissive as children".
Freemasonry
Voltaire was initiated into Freemasonry one month before his death. On April 4, 1778 Voltaire accompanied his close friend Benjamin Franklin into Loge des Neuf Soeurs in Paris, France and became an Entered Apprentice Freemason, perhaps only to please Franklin.
Legacy
Bust of Voltaire by Houdon.
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 and oppressive force useful only on occasion as a counterbalance to the rapacity of kings, although all too often, more rapacious itself. Voltaire distrusted democracy, which he saw as propagating the idiocy of the masses. Voltaire long thought only an enlightened monarch could bring about change, given the social structures of the time and the extremely high rates of illiteracy, and that it was in the king's rational interest to improve the education and welfare of his subjects. But his disappointments and disillusions with Frederick the Great changed his philosophy somewhat, and soon gave birth to one of his most enduring works, his novella, Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism, 1759), which ends with a new conclusion: "It is up to us to cultivate our garden". His most polemical and ferocious attacks on intolerance and religious persecutions indeed began to appear a few years later. Candide was also subject to censorship and Voltaire jokingly claimed the actual author was a certain "Demad" in a letter, where he reaffirmed the main polemical stances of the text.
Voltaire also believed that Africans were a separate species inferior to the white Europeans and closer to monkeys.
Voltaire is also known for many memorable aphorisms, such as: "Si Dieu n'existait pas, il faudrait l'inventer" ("If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him"), contained in a verse epistle from 1768, addressed to the anonymous author of a controversial work, "The Three Impostors." But far from being the cynical remark it is often taken for, it was meant as a retort to the atheistic clique of d'Holbach, Grimm, and others.
Voltaire is remembered and honored in France as a courageous polemicist who indefatigably fought for civil rights—the right to a fair trial and freedom of religion—and who denounced the hypocrisies and injustices of the ancien régime. The ancien régime involved an unfair balance of power and taxes between the First Estate (the clergy), the Second Estate (the nobles), and the Third Estate (the commoners and middle class, who were burdened with most of the taxes).
Voltaire has had his detractors among his later colleagues. The Scottish Victorian writer Thomas Carlyle argued that, while Voltaire was unsurpassed in literary form, not even the most elaborate of his works were of much value for matter and that he never uttered an original idea of his own. Nietzsche, however, called Carlyle a muddlehead who had not even understood the Enlightenment values he thought he was promoting.
He often used China, Siam and Japan as examples of brilliant non-European civilizations and harshly criticized slavery,.
The town of Ferney, where Voltaire lived out the last 20 years of his life, is now named Ferney-Voltaire in honor of its most famous resident. His château is a museum.
Voltaire's library is preserved intact in the National Library of Russia at St. Petersburg, Russia.
In Zurich 1916, the theater and performance group who would become the early avant-garde movement Dada named their theater The Cabaret Voltaire. A late-20th-century industrial music group then named themselves after the theater.
A character based on Voltaire plays an important role in The Age of Unreason, a series of four alternative history novels written by American science fiction and fantasy author Gregory Keyes.
Voltaire was also known to have been an advocate for coffee, as he was purported to have drunk the beverage at least 30 times per day. It has been suggested that high amounts of caffeine acted as a mental stimulant to his creativity.
His great grand-niece was the mother of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a famous writer and Jesuit priest.
Works
Major works
Lettres philosophiques sur les Anglais (1733), revised as Letters on the English (circa 1778)
Le Mondain (1736)
Sept Discours en Vers sur l'Homme (1738)
Zadig (1747)
Micromégas (1752)
Candide (1759)
Treatise on Tolerance (1763)
Ce qui plaît aux dames (1764)
Dictionnaire philosophique (1764)
L'Ingénu (1767)
La Princesse de Babylone (1768)
Plays
Voltaire wrote between fifty and sixty plays, including a few unfinished ones. Among them are these:
Œdipe (1718)
Zaïre (1732)
Eriphile (1732)
Irène
Socrates
Mahomet
Mérope
Nanine
The Orphan of China (1755)
Historical
History of Charles XII, King of Sweden (1731)
The Age of Louis XIV (1751)
The Age of Louis XV (1746–1752)
Annals of the Empire - Charlemagne, A.D. 742 - Henry VII 1313, Vol. I (1754)
Annals of the Empire - Louis of Bavaria, 1315 to Ferdinand II 1631 Vol. II (1754)
' Essay on the Manners of Nations (or 'Universal History') (1756)
History of the Russian Empire Under Peter the Great (Vol. I 1759; Vol. II 1763)