club100 | The philosopher who was always right
Very good friends, here I am again with a new review about a great writer of the Enlightenment period, contemporary with Rousseau, who also had very great contributions in the ideology of the French revolution and its development, although he dies a few years before it took place, without much more to add let's talk about François-Marie Arouet popularly known as Voltaire, French writer, philosopher, historian and lawyer.
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Born in france in 1694 young man who at 17 years of age formalized an avid enthusiasm for the theater, taking largely the inspiration of other people whose ideals were similar such as Molière, Racine and Corneille. However, his father was strongly opposed to this path, because he wanted his son to become a public official, so he forced Voltaire to study law, a career that he would later practice although not so often because he did not feel comfortable with what he was doing. Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire was raised in a family full of money, although they were of the lowest class among aristocrats they were still very wealthy people, this led him to receive a first-line education.
Between the years 1704 and 1711 he began to make writings about the Duke of Orleans, here began some bad omens for this philosopher, because these writings were not positivist and in favor of royalty, but on the contrary framed the harsh reality of the French people of that time, so that the duke had no remorse in imprisoning Voltaire in order that his idiosyncrasy did not proliferate, after all he was attacking him and imprisoning him was a way of imposing fear on the proletariat. Although this imprisonment did not last long, one year was enough to free him and exile him from the place, Voltaire thus arriving at Chátenay-Malaby, a place where he would cease to be known by name and would begin to use the pseudonym that we all know.
After some time there, Voltaire had a strong argument with a nobleman named Rohan, who ended up exiled him to Britain, where he would finally live a life full of relative happiness, however, at this time he would become a writer with a brutal influence in later years, since his way of thinking would be adopted by the French revolution and neutral, coming to be hated by the vast majority of monarchs of the time, this is a consequence of what promoted "Freedom, fraternity and opposition to dogmatism". He was a great friend of contemporaries of this type of philosophy, such as John Locke, Jonathan Swift and Rousseau. People who would greatly help the construction of the thought of Voltaire, a thinker who exposed multiple opinions about French society at the time, such as that the church was the greatest apex of indoctrination to the less wealthy and of course to those with lower educational levels, respected the idea of the monarchy, but did not think the same about what they did with civilization, it also called for citizens to have individual and collective rights as far as possible. He had a thousand and one issues that caused controversy, controversy and hatred where it was enacted, but this was not an impediment for him, because this took it as a way of life rather than as a job or a duty.
Despite the hatred that the crown had before this man, he did nothing against them directly, he simply had a current of thought that was taken by some, but no acts of violence were taken against the monarchy, even in some points he looked in a susceptible way, so beyond burning some of his works in the public eye they did not persecute him, unlike Rousseau who was practically a fugitive just for promoting individual thought, which is why Voltaire did manage to make the passes with the king of the time Louis XV who in the end appointed him historian of royalty, academic and knight of the royal chamber.
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"Tolerance to individual ignorance and even more to collective ignorance is undoubtedly what helps to change the currents of thought, because through it we are more sure of ourselves and the perseverance presented in our image will be a fundamental part in the intellectual conflict of people, this will make them think and analyze situations more"
Without a doubt a person who deserves a great place in history, it is very worth reading, although I have not personally read any of his books I have heard one or another anecdote of this philosopher and today after this biography that cost me a little to do, I end it with the happiness of knowing that I have found another person from whom I can learn through his writings.