Voltaire

Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by his nom de plume Voltaire (1694–1778), was a French writer, historian, poet, and philosopher. The era of Enlightenment is synonymously known by the age of Voltaire; such was his influence. He was born in Paris into a wealthy bourgeois family. His journey of reading started with prose, such as Addison’s Spectator and Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. In the 1730s, he illuminated the thought of Newton and Locke to France. His ‘common sense’ crusade against superstition and prejudice and in favour of religious toleration was his single greatest contribution to the progress of Enlightenment. Voltaire brought revolutionary changes in the French Revolution by attacking the Catholic church and demanding freedom of religion. He abided by the philosophy of reason, where reason ruled over any authority or power. ‘Rousseau writes for writing’s sake’, Voltaire declared in a letter of 1767, ‘I write to act’. His expression of dissent resulted in the banning of his works as well. Candide by Voltaire exposes the problem of evil in society through wit and satire in his work. Another influential work by Voltaire is the fictitious Lettres Philosophiques, published in 1734. His works deeply influence the progressive global ideal.

He died in 1778, aged 83, in Paris, France.