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Voltaire

Voltaire. Ashley Rhoden and Brandon Robinson. Early Life. Francois Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire) was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris. the fourth of five children, to a well-to-do public official

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Voltaire

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  1. Voltaire Ashley Rhoden and Brandon Robinson

  2. Early Life • Francois Marie Arouet (pen name Voltaire) was born on November 21, 1694 in Paris. • the fourth of five children, to a well-to-do public official • young Voltaire was shaped by his contacts with the English aristocrat, freethinker,andJacobite Lord Bolingbroke. • prestigious Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris he also acquired a first-class education • Father was frustrated that he wanted to become a writer

  3. The English Period (1726–1729) • Voltaire's transition into his mature philosophe identity began • Voltaire met Bolingbroke, Jonathan Swift, and John Gay • knew the other Newtonians (followers of Isaac Newton) and soon became proficient enough in English to write letters and fiction • Visited Holland and became close with the journalists there

  4. A Change of Direction • Received his father’s inheritance so he never struggled financially in his life • fall of 1732, the next stage in his career began and he lived in the royal court of Versailles, a sign that his re-establishment in French society was complete • scandal forced him to flee Paris and to establish himself permanently at the Du Châtelet family estate • Officials granted Voltaire permission to re-enter Paris in1729, turned from poet to philosophe

  5. New Beginnings • Married Emilie du Châtele • Voltaire’s ideas for writing letters about the darker side of things were inspired by Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels • Votaire wrote letters about several aspects of English society; titled Letters On England • Eventually wrote about English religion and Parliament • Letters On England was published without Voltaire’s consent • Ran away to Cirey, England with du Châtele

  6. An Influential Name • 1745, named the Royal Historiographer of France, bestowed upon him from Louis XIV and the Swedish King Charles II and accepted invitation to court in Prussia • Essaissur les moeurs et l'esprit des nations (1751) • began to craft an anti-Leibnizian discourse in the 1740s • satire of the President of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin exiled him from Prussia

  7. Here to Stay • Settled in Geneva • Became a newly self-conscious philosophes concerned with political and intellectual change • Encyclopédiste was realeased; scandal occurs • Dictionnaire philosophique, his book republished his articles from the original Encyclopédie • Candide, ou l'Optimisme, text is a serious attack on Leibnizian philosophy • Died in 1778

  8. The Enlightenment Period • 18th century cultural changes characterized by a loss of faith in religion, science, and democratic republic • Enlightenment ideas were strongly influenced by the Constitution of the U.S. • Europe-wide movement

  9. In Relation to Candide • Dr. Pangloss: absolute Optimism is a mockery of the philosophy of an Enlightenment thinker named Leibniz • El Dorado: Voltaire’s vision of an ideal society.

  10. “Each player must accept the cards life deals him or her: but once they are in hand, he or she alone must decide how to play the cards in order to win the game.” -Voltaire

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