Enlightenment? Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot and their “gang”

Enlightenment?
Voltaire, Rousseau, Diderot
and their gang
Helene Cazes
Department of French
Program of Medieval Studies
The Enlightenment
•  A critic of religious dogmas
•  A call for justice
•  A fight for democracy
•  The belief in science and
education
A new position for
philosophical debate
The civic responsibility
The people
The science
The crirtic of political
absolutism
The severance from
University
The Libertines
The idea of Progress
Voltaire,
1694-1778
Voltaire,1694-1778, the
iconic figure of a
philosophical movement:
when ideas and civic
involvement change the
face of a society
Denis Diderot,
1713-1778
The Encyclopedia :
Knowledge for
everyone
Rousseau,
1712-1778
Momentum without collective emotion
20th June 1789
August 26, 1789
The Representatives of the French People,
formed into a National Assembly, considering
ignorance, the lapse of memory or contempt
of the rights of man to be the sole causes of
public misfortunes and the corruption of
Governments, have resolved to set forth, in a
solemn Declaration, the natural, inalienable
and sacred rights of man, to the end that this
Declaration, constantly present to all
members of the body politic, may remind
them unceasingly of their rights and their
duties
DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS
OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN
Article the 1st
Men are born and remain free and
equal in rights. The social
distinctions can be founded only on
the common utility.
The Phrygian hats (bonnets Phrygiens)
Phrygians hats :
The symbols of freedom
François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire "
Paris in 1694, educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-leGrand (1704-11), 1711 to 1713 he studied law, secretary to
the French ambassador in Holland,forced to return to
France. "
"
energetic attacks on the government and the Catholic
Church, numerous imprisonments and exiles"
In his early twenties he spent eleven months in the Bastille
for writing satirical verses about the aristocracy"
"
After graduating, career in literature. "
Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the
aristocratic families. One of his writings, about Louis XV's
regent, Philippe II, Duke of Orléans, led to his being
imprisoned in the Bastille. While there, he wrote his debut
play, Œdipe, and adopted the name Voltaire which came
from his hometown in southern France . "
Exile to England"
"
1726, the Chevalier de Rohan, lettre de cachet issued against
Voltaire. "
exiled to England without trial, and the incident marked the
beginning of Voltaire's attempts to improve the French judicial
system."
John Locke, Jonathan Swift and Sir Isaac Newton, "
England's constitutional monarchy and support of the freedoms
of speech and religion. "
After three years in exile, Voltaire returned to Paris in 1729
where he published his views on English 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). "
copies of the document were burnt and Voltaire was forced to
leave Paris."
The Château de Cirey"
"
Marquise du Châtelet, Gabrielle Émilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil. "
21,000 books, experiments with the "natural sciences" ( properties of fire)."
After the death of the Marquise, Voltaire moved to Berlin to
join Frederick the Great"
salary of 20,000 francs a year. "
lawsuit and an argument with the president of the Berlin
Academy of Science, (Diatribe du Docteur Akakia) (Diatribe of
Doctor Akakia) which derided the president. "
Anger of Frederick, who had all copies of the document
burned and arrested Voltaire at an inn where he was staying
along his journey home. "
Micromegas"
"
Voltaire headed toward Paris, but Louis XV banned him from
the city, so instead he turned to Geneva, where he bought a
large estate. "
A law in Geneva which banned theatrical performances and
the publication of La pucelle d'Orléans "
Candide, ou l'Optimisme (Candide, or Optimism) in 1759"
Callas, Sirvene (1762-71)
Chevalier de La Barre (1769)
A French endeavour?
A collective adventure
The Encyclopedia
1746-1778
The subscription
The plan for universal
education (Condorcet)
Rethinking philosophical
thought
with science
with the idea of people and
universality
against dogma
against illegitimate authority
against intolerance and
injustice