"Work keeps us from three great evils: boredom, vice and poverty." VOLTAIRE
By Alex P. Vidal
Voltaire (the pseudonym of Francois-Marie Arouet), while contributing little that could be described as entirely original to the philosophical canon, poured out to the world a most extraordinary mixture of novels, plays, reviews, pamphlets and historical words.
In many ways, with his total commitment to the world around him, he was the epitome of the Age of Enlightenment.
Voltaire's early satirical works earned him a year in the Bastille and later, in 1726, exile to England.
RADICAL
Already a radical and liberal, he quickly saw in England a society that enjoyed far greater justice and freedom than France.
In his Letters Philosophiques he praises social, religious and political liberty and uses social utility as the definition of good political institutions.
He was a firm believer in God, but was entirely opposed to the views of the Church and proposed that doubt should be the beginning of wisdom and enlightenment.
He saw evil as essentially man-made, and a mystery that refused to be solved.
His most famous tale, Candide, highlights a world where human life and dignity are of little importance.
Voltaire's portrait of Pangloss in the novel was at the expense of Pope and Gottfried Leibnitz.
NON-VIOLENCE
Voltaire, unlike many of his supporters, was a strong advocator of non-violence and believed with passion that the fight against authority, tradition and conformity could be won without the spilling of blood.
Although he died before the onset of the French Revolution, his style of thought did much to inspire the events in 1789.
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