[PDF] Voltaire And The Enlightenment eBook

Author : Ritchie Robertson
Publisher : HarperCollins
Page : 1008 pages
File Size : 32,93 MB
Release : 2021-02-23
Category : History
ISBN : 0062410679

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A magisterial history that recasts the Enlightenment as a period not solely consumed with rationale and reason, but rather as a pursuit of practical means to achieve greater human happiness. One of the formative periods of European and world history, the Enlightenment is the fountainhead of modern secular Western values: religious tolerance, freedom of thought, speech and the press, of rationality and evidence-based argument. Yet why, over three hundred years after it began, is the Enlightenment so profoundly misunderstood as controversial, the expression of soulless calculation? The answer may be that, to an extraordinary extent, we have accepted the account of the Enlightenment given by its conservative enemies: that enlightenment necessarily implied hostility to religion or support for an unfettered free market, or that this was “the best of all possible worlds”. Ritchie Robertson goes back into the “long eighteenth century,” from approximately 1680 to 1790, to reveal what this much-debated period was really about. Robertson returns to the era’s original texts to show that above all, the Enlightenment was really about increasing human happiness – in this world rather than the next – by promoting scientific inquiry and reasoned argument. In so doing Robertson chronicles the campaigns mounted by some Enlightened figures against evils like capital punishment, judicial torture, serfdom and witchcraft trials, featuring the experiences of major figures like Voltaire and Diderot alongside ordinary people who lived through this extraordinary moment. In answering the question 'What is Enlightenment?' in 1784, Kant famously urged men and women above all to “have the courage to use your own intellect”. Robertson shows how the thinkers of the Enlightenment did just that, seeking a well-rounded understanding of humanity in which reason was balanced with emotion and sensibility. Drawing on philosophy, theology, historiography and literature across the major western European languages, The Enlightenment is a master-class in big picture history about the foundational epoch of modern times.

Author : Jason Porterfield
Publisher : The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc
Page : 120 pages
File Size : 21,93 MB
Release : 2005-12-15
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
ISBN : 9781404204232

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Presents the life of the French philosopher, discussing his literary and philosophical writings, his tumultuous relationships with some of the rulers and thinkers of his day, and his lasting influence on French culture.

Author : Roger Pearson
Publisher : A&C Black
Page : 570 pages
File Size : 23,19 MB
Release : 2010-12-15
Category : History
ISBN : 1408820803

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During much of his life Voltaire's plays and verse made him the toast of society, but his barbed wit and commitment to reason also got him into trouble. Jailed twice and eventually banished by the King, he was an outspoken critic of religious intolerance and persecution. His personal life was as colourful as his intellectual one. Voltaire never married, but had long-term affairs with two women: Emilie, who died after giving birth to the child of another lover, and his niece, Marie-Louise, with whom he spent his last twenty-five years. With its tales of illegitimacy, prison, stardom, exile, love affairs and tireless battles against critics, Church and King, Roger Pearson's brilliant biography brings Voltaire vividly to life.

Author : Collection
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Page : 102 pages
File Size : 18,81 MB
Release : 2016-02-05
Category :
ISBN : 9781523892969

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" Everybody looks for happiness without knowing where to find it; like drunkards who look for their house, knowing dimly that they have one." (Voltaire) This collection aimed to present the works, thoughts and life of the enlightenment philosophers and writers who influenced the world and the social revolutions worldwide.

Author : Voltaire Voltaire
Publisher : BoD – Books on Demand
Page : 252 pages
File Size : 13,55 MB
Release : 2024-01-01
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9360466042

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Voltaire's "Philosophical Dictionary" stands as a huge work that encapsulates the Enlightenment thinker's wit, skepticism, and intellectual prowess. Composed within the 18th century, Voltaire, a key figure of the Enlightenment, provides a complete collection of essays, reflections, and critiques that discover a myriad of subjects ranging from faith and morality to technological know-how and governance. In this magnum opus, Voltaire employs his function satirical style to dissect the prevailing institutions and ideologies of his time. With eager insights and a razor-sharp pen, he demanding situations dogma, promotes purpose, and advocates for freedom of thought. The "Philosophical Dictionary" is a testomony to Voltaire's dedication to purpose, secularism, and a relentless pursuit of understanding. Structured as an alphabetical encyclopedia, the paintings covers an extensive array of topics, providing readers with a panoramic view of the Enlightenment's highbrow panorama. Voltaire's erudition and irreverence make this collection not simplest a vital examination of his modern-day society however also a undying exploration of human nature and the pursuit of enlightenment. "Philosophical Dictionary" stays a cornerstone of Enlightenment literature, showcasing Voltaire's enduring influence as a logician, satirist, and recommend for intellectual freedom. Through its pages, readers come upon a profound and often humorous engagement with the thoughts that formed the Enlightenment and continue to resonate within the nation-states of philosophy and essential thinking.

Author : Voltaire
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 192 pages
File Size : 31,8 MB
Release : 2000-11-09
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521649698

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Voltaire is widely known as the author of a literary masterpiece, Candide, while his reputation as a thinker rests largely on his Philosophical Letters and Philosophical Dictionary. He is equally renowned as a critic of the forces of superstition and fanaticism, and a champion of freedom of thought and belief. The works presented here, in a new English translation, are among the most important and characteristic texts of the Enlightenment, and bring together all three aspects of Voltaire: the writer, the doer and the philosophe. Originating in Voltaire's campaign to exonerate Jean Calas, they are works of polemical brilliance, informed by his deism and humanism and by Enlightenment values and ideals more generally. The issues which they raise, concerning questions of tolerance and human dignity, are still highly relevant to our own times. This volume presents them together with an introduction by Simon Harvey and useful notes on further reading.

Author : Voltaire
Publisher : Newcomb Livraria Press
Page : 125 pages
File Size : 43,77 MB
Release : 1961
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 3989882260

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A new translation directly from the original French manuscript of Voltaire's 1734 Philosophical Letters (original title "Lettres Philosophiques"). This edition also contains supplemental material on Voltaire including an afterword by the translator, a timeline of Voltaire's life and works, summaries of each of the works in his corpus, and a glossary of Philosophic Terminology used by Voltaire. Dubbed the "manifesto of the Enlightenment ", this work was a major intellectual and polemical report on English modernity, published throughout Europe in 20,000 copies, an extremely high figure at the time. In Paris, its praise of "English liberty and tolerance" was seen as an attack on government and religion. Written in 1734, it's also known as "Letters Concerning the English Nation." In this series of essays, Voltaire discusses his observations from his stay in England. He makes comparisons between the English system and French institutions, especially noting the freedoms and tolerances he observed in England. The book was condemned by the Jansenist-majority Parliament and burned at the bottom of the Grand Staircase of the Palais. A lettre de cachet was then issued against Voltaire, and Émilie du Châtelet offered him refuge in the Château de Cirey in Champagne. This work was written during a time when Voltaire was exiled to England by the French Monarchy, where he was introduced to the ideas of English Empiricist philosophers such as John Locke as well as the new Physics of Isaac Newton. The Philosophical Letters is a series of letters written to a fictional correspondent in France, in which Voltaire compares the political and intellectual climate of England to that of France. The work was important because it introduced English ideas to the French intellectual elite, and helped to inspire a wave of cultural and political reforms in France along with Rousseau's push for democracy and freedom of speech. This manuscript is a critical link between the English Empiricist thinkers such as Lock and Hume, and the new French Materialists.

Author : Voltaire Voltaire
Publisher : Xist Publishing
Page : 136 pages
File Size : 34,17 MB
Release : 2016-04-02
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 1681959526

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Candide by Voltaire from Coterie Classics All Coterie Classics have been formatted for ereaders and devices and include a bonus link to the free audio book. “Do you believe,' said Candide, 'that men have always massacred each other as they do to-day, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?' Do you believe,' said Martin, 'that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?” ― Voltaire, Candide Candide is a young man who is raised in wealth to be an optimist but when he is forced to make his own way in the world, his assumptions and outlook are challenged.