PHIL 2035: Voltaire

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PHIL 2035 Voltaire

• Another Plea for Toleration
• Lecture 1

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Voltaire
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Who Was Voltaire?

• b. Paris 1694 as François-Marie Arouet
• Jailed for his ideas
• Questioned political and social order
• Divine rt. of kings
• Persecution of Protestants
• Other forms of prejudice and bigotry.
• Fifteen-year affair with Emilie du Châtelet, a
  mathematician and physicist
• Self-exiled to Switzerland, near Geneva
• d. Paris 1778.

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Works

• Satires Candide, Ingenu mock European bigotry
  and intolerance
• Tragedies
• Scientific popularization Newtons physics for
  the French
• Polemics Treatise on Toleration (TT), Letters
  Concerning the English Nation, also called
  Philosophical Letters
• History La Henriade, epic poem about Henry IV of
  Navarre, author of edict of Nantes.

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Voltaire and China

• Saw China as a model for Europe
• Sources Jesuit and Dominican missionaries
• Belief in superiority of Chinese
• Culture
• Mores, especially tolerance
• Government paternalistic and effective
• Discussed China in many of his works
• Treatise on Toleration, 1763
• Tragedy Orphelin de la Chine, 1755
• Chine, in Dictionnaire philosophique, 1764.

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Procession of Chinese Official1730s
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Voltaire on Chinas Government

• There is no need to be fanatical about the
  merits of the Chinese the constitution of their
  empire is in truth the best that there could be
  in the world, the only one that is entirely
  founded on paternal power(emph. added)
• the only one in which a provincial governor is
  punished, whenhe does not receive the
  acclamations of the people
• the only one that has instituted prizes for
  virtue, whereas everywhere else the laws limit
  themselves to punishing crime
• the only one that has had its laws adopted by its
  conquerorsthe Manchurians (trans. mine).

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China and Tolerance

• the great Yung-Chin, perhaps the wisest and
  most magnanimous emperor that China has ever
  known, expelled the Jesuits.
• However, that was not because he was intolerant,
  but rather because they were (TT, 27).
• It was enough that he should be informed of the
  squalid dirty, low quarrels between Jesuits,
  Dominicans, Franciscans and secular priests
  (TT, 28).

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Lockes view of the State

• Like a nightwatchman
• Minimal interference in lives of citizens
• Only for security of persons, properties
• And maintenance of life
• Could include public health measures sanitation,
  safe drinking water, but not religion
• Infrastructure for commerce? Not necessarily
  private toll roads and bridges, banks print money
  as in HK (not State).

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Contrast Lockes view of good government with
that of Voltaire

• What is the essential difference between them?

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What are the implications of each view for
toleration?

• Locke
• Govt that leaves citizens alone is best
• This includes religious beliefs
• These are private
• Unless their observance causes harm to others
• Full toleration did not occur in G.B. until 19th
  century.

• Voltaire
• Proponent of paternalist government, yet also
• Advocated toleration
• Seemed contradictory
• Church supported divine right of kings
• However absolute rulers Frederick the Great of
  Prussia and Joseph II of Austria promulgated
  toleration.

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The English ExceptionLetters concerning the
English Nation

• The English are the only people on earth who
  have been able to prescribe limits to the power
  of Kings by resisting them
• Andthe Prince is all powerful to do good, andis
  restrained from committing evil
• the Nobles are great without insolence
• Andthe People share in the government without
  confusion.

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Toleration in EnglandVoltaires Letter on
Presbyterians

• Who are Presbyterians?
• Followers of Scottish Calvinist, John Knox (16th
  cent.)
• V. uses a letter on Presbyterians to demonstrate
  toleration in commerce
• London Stock Exchange requires no religious
  agreement
• There is no official interference to ensure such
  agreement!

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Why is England an exception?

• Because virtually all other European states are
  under absolute rule, justified by divine right of
  kings.
• Intolerance is the norm.

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Todays Question

• Candide ends with Candide and his companions
  finding happiness as farmers. Pangloss points out
  that this is reminiscent of the Garden of Eden
  (Genesis, Bible). However, Voltaire became very
  active in political and social causes later in
  his life.
• Does that mean that he disagrees with his own
  idea of the garden, and does not see it as the
  best of all possible solutions?

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Next lecture

• Intolerance the theological issues, Candide and
  the Ingenu