Voltaire
French Enlightenment philosopher (1694–1778) whose satirical wit attacked religious fanaticism, Church corruption, and political tyranny, making skepticism and rational inquiry the moral imperatives of educated Europeans.
Voltaire's weapon was satire. His novel Candide (1759) is a systematic demolition of optimistic theology and aristocratic complacency, using absurdist humor to expose the gap between what institutions claim to represent and what they actually do. His target was always the same: l'infâme, the infamous thing, meaning religious intolerance and clerical power.
His famous line, 'Crush the infamous thing' (Écrasez l'infâme), became the battle cry of the Enlightenment against the Catholic Church's monopoly on thought, persecution of heretics, and alliance with absolute monarchy.
Unlike Rousseau, Voltaire had no faith in the masses, he was an elitist who believed rational reform would come from enlightened monarchs and educated elites, not popular revolution. His famous quip about God, 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him', captures the Enlightenment deist position: religion is necessary for social order, but its content should be rational, not superstitious.
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Frequently asked questions
What did Voltaire believe? ＋
Voltaire was a deist who believed in a rational God but fiercely opposed organized religion, superstition, and clerical power. He championed free speech, religious tolerance, and rational inquiry as the foundations of a good society.
What is Candide about? ＋
A satirical novella that follows a naive young man through a series of disasters, torture, war, natural catastrophe, to demolish the Leibnizian idea that 'all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds' and to mock optimistic theology.