July 21, 2025 • 37 mins
He is perhaps the most famous man of the Enlightenment. A true genius and a man of letters. The wit, the charm, the sarcasm, and the irreverence of Voltaire is intoxicating. Who is this figure and why is he important for how we think of the world today? Find out as we examine his influence, life, and works.
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0:00 Voltaire's Influence and Legacy Explored
7:22 Voltaire's Exile and Critique of French Politics
11:10 Voltaire's Love, Wealth, and Philosophical Adventures
13:54 Voltaire's Advocacy for Religious Toleration and Critique of Religion
17:13 Voltaire's Beliefs on Religion, Science, and Inoculation
22:02 Voltaire's Enlightenment Ideals Versus Rousseau's Critique of Society
25:35 Voltaire's Candide Critiques Leibniz's Philosophical Optimism
30:59 Voltaire's Vices, Works, and Influence
35:14 Voltaire's Sarcastic Critique of Abraham's Biblical Journey
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Hello and welcome to another edition of everyone's favorite
podcast, Ideological. I'm your host, Zach Lee, and
today's episode is brought to you by I'm Trying to think, Who
Would Never Actually support this by Chuck E Cheese.
Chuck E Cheese, our mascot, is arat and everything's covered in
grease. Please enjoy a piece of pizza.
(00:29):
You're a sneezing child. Chuck E Cheese try to get a
disease when you jump in the ball pit.
OK, so today is a very exciting day on on ideological because
we're going to talk about a guy who is bigger than Michael
Jordan. Not physically.
We're going to talk about a guy who's bigger than The Beatles.
Today we are talking about the legendary Voltaire.
(00:49):
OK, so really excited to talk about Voltaire.
He is, his influence is enormous.
I cannot emphasize to you enoughwhat a big deal this guy is.
He's kind of a big deal bigger than Ron Burgundy is Voltaire
old the, the old big V, let's not call him that, actually,
Voltaire. So I want to tell you why this
(01:09):
figure is so influential. He's kind of the rival to Russo.
If you haven't listened to Russolecture #Russo go listen to it.
But he is his influence is enormous.
Let me just tell you about why this guy is a powerhouse and
then we'll talk about his life and some of his thoughts and
things like that. And should be a ton of fun.
So first of all, Voltaire, he isone of the most famous literary
(01:33):
figures in all of history, one of the top writers to ever come
out of France. And during the later part of his
life, towards the end of his life, he is the most famous
author in the world at that time.
So kind of a big deal. He is a true Renaissance man.
He is a true what is called Amdouletre, a man of letters.
(01:53):
He was a poet, A playwright, a political satirist, A literary
author, a philosopher, A historian, a scientist, a
mathematician. He is good at everything.
And he's not so much of A philosopher though, like when we
think of a philosopher like Plato or Descartes or something
like this. He is more of what's called a
philosoph. The philosophs were guys like
(02:13):
Montesquieu and Denis di Dajo. Jean Jacques Rousseau was
philosoph. They're kind of these public
intellectuals that are big during the Enlightenment era,
whether they're for or against it.
These are kind of the philosophs.
His works are tremendously so prolific.
I I don't know what you had to write in high school.
(02:36):
I don't know the longest book you've ever read.
I don't know the longest paper you've ever written.
Let me just mention some things about Voltaire.
His works are so prolific that the Voltaire Foundation in
Oxford is attempting to make a critical edition of his works,
and it's supposed to be about 200 volumes.
He contributed many articles to di de Ro's Encyclopedie, the
encyclopedia, kind of the Reformation from Delambert and
(02:58):
and di der 0. I'm a say it with a cool little
Frenchy sound so that you know, you know, I'm, I'm from the city
of love, not from there. Couldn't be French, but I've
been there. It's great.
He wrote an estimated 20,000 letters over 50 plays and would
sometimes write for 18 hours a day.
(03:22):
Voltaire, he's the guy. I want to show you a picture.
We'll throw it up on the screen.I want to show you a picture of
his grave at the Pantheon in Paris.
I got to visit, which is kind offunny because my wife's like,
we're in the city of love, let'sMake Love.
There's champagne and all these things.
And I'm like, no, we're going togo see some dead guy's tombs who
wrote a bunch of old works. So here's a picture of
(03:45):
Voltaire's tomb, and then acrossfrom him is his enemy, Jean
Jacques Rousseau. And here's a picture of me
flicking off Rousseau's tomb. That's how I feel about that.
I'm not sure how the French feelabout that if they see this, but
hey, I am who I am. He knew French, English, Latin
and Greek really well. And then he had some functional
knowledge also of Italian and Spanish.
(04:06):
Again, no big deal. Don't know how many languages
you speak, probably like pig Latin.
And then you try to speak, I'm in Texas, everyone here speaks
like what sounds like a racist form of Spanish.
Like I hear him say it. And I think you should just
stick with English. You're going to offend somebody.
His goal was to be the Virgil ofFrance.
He was Louis the 15th historian and was ducked into the French
Academy with some help from the King's mistress.
(04:28):
What we're going to see that Voltaire is a little bit
naughty. Voltaire is not his real name.
That is his nom de plume, his pin name, if you will.
His real name is Francois Marie Arouet.
OK, Francois Marie Arouet. Where does the name Voltaire
come from? Here's what's interesting.
Nobody knows. It's a secret nobody knows.
(04:52):
Actually, scholars have an idea.The most common theory is that
it's a Latinized version of his name, Aroue with the Lejeune,
which means the younger, right? Lejeune, so Rea the younger.
And then you move some letters around.
It's like an anagram. And you can spell Voltaire,
baby. Some think he's using the French
(05:14):
words volaire. And TA meaning or volley is what
it be and TA meaning to fly. And the word earth, something
that is a play on the Latin wordwalluntas will or desire
something. It's to disparage his dad, whom
he thought was too authoritarian.
There's a bunch of theories nobody really knows for sure,
(05:34):
but the most common is that somehow he mixed around some
letters with a title or name, maybe even with some Latin
thrown in there, and he came up with his pin name.
He occurs in a lot of pop reference cultures, from songs
to movies to shows. Recently I was watching and this
is such a great show. Don't watch it with your kids,
but it's a great show. The great hilarious.
(05:55):
And Voltaire figures on that. They call him Voltaire.
Voltaire, his influence will be so enormous.
Let let me say this comes from aa scholar named Alan Coors,
who's an Enlightenment scholar. And he said this and I thought
it was really interesting. Voltaire's influence is so
massive that after Voltaire, people will look to the big
(06:17):
answers of life. They'll look for the meaning of
life in literature instead of philosophy and theology.
OK, He's that powerful. Who is VoLTE?
Who is this Francois Marie? That's Marie as a middle name.
You're a boy anyway. Born November 21st, 1694 in
Paris. In Paris, he lost his mother
(06:38):
when he was 7 and his dad wantedhim to become a lawyer.
Being a lawyer, something dads just want their kids to be
throughout a lot of history, 'cause you make that sweet
scorrilla, make that money. He was educated at the Jesuit
College of Louis Legrand in Paris, which is one of the most
prestigious institutions in France.
Like it's it's a big deal. Other people that went there in
addition to Voltaire are guys like Mirabeau from the French
(07:01):
Revolution, Lafayette from the American Revolution, some names
you might have heard in history.It's a big deal.
When he got older, he became secretary to the French
ambassador, but he had an affairwith a high official's daughter.
Again, just just just focusing on that V, which didn't go well
for for him. He was imprisoned twice in the
(07:23):
Bastille, the famous kind of prison there.
And he was also exiled. They're like you're in prison.
Another time in his life, he'll be beat up and put in prison and
he got exiled. He was exiled to England, where
he polished his English. He was already a prolific writer
in in French, and he also learned how to to write really
well in in English while he was there.
I just realized there's a sweet sunbeam on my face.
(07:49):
See, even God wants me to talk about Voltaire right now.
I'm going to adjust this and move away from that.
So he worked on his English while he was in England.
He was there for over over 2 years, almost three years.
He was especially enamored by John Locke and Isaac Newton,
right? Obviously, we know that as the
inventor of the lock and the guywho invented Apple's falling,
(08:09):
the philosopher John Locke and his empiricism and Isaac Newton
and his views about physics, gravity and that kind of stuff,
he got to meet Alexander Pope, George Barkley and others.
OK, not to be confused with Charles Barkley, who also he did
not meet along with Michael Jordan, unlike France.
Let me tell you why England was so impactful for our boy VoLTE.
Unlike France, where Catholicismreigned supreme and had a
(08:31):
monarchy, there was more religious toleration in England
and the people had more of a voice within a parliamentary
system. So if you're in France, you have
the Roman Catholic Church, you have the monarchy.
In England, though, there's parliament and there's differing
religions because it's a Protestant country.
And so they accept more, you know, a little bit more
(08:52):
religious toleration. He said, Voltaire, this is a
great quote from him. In his Philosophical Letters, he
says this. He says, talking about England,
if there were only one religion in England, there would be
danger of tyranny. If there were two, they would
cut each other's throats. But there are 30.
And they live happily together in peace.
OK. His work Philosophical Letters,
(09:13):
which it's called and it, it's, it's called, you know, letters
to the English people or lettersto England or letters from
England or the English letters. It's got a bunch of names, but
the most common title is Philosophical Letters.
His work Philosophical Letters was a critique of France's
politics and religion by pointing out the things that he
learned in England after he was exiled there.
So it's kind of one big middle finger to the French powers.
(09:36):
He likes the French people, but the French powers and this work
would get him in a lot of trouble.
His work, Philosophical Letters ended up getting a warrant for
his arrest. And what they did is they took
his work and they burned it likepublicly, as if to condemn
Voltaire because Voltaire is so freaking witty.
If you, if you know one thing about Voltaire, he wants
toleration and he's smarter thanyou and he's witty and he is so
(09:59):
mocking and sarcastic, like he is the most caustic, but in the
best way kind of thinker. It's, it's really fun to read
him because he's so sarcastic and so mocking and so witty.
He's just always got a jab. So they burn his work and he
makes some sort of comment to his buddy to say something like
we're making progress. Whereas they used to burn the
author. Now they just burn his books,
(10:21):
right. So, so he, he comes back from
England, he, he's written, he, he writes this work.
It gets him in a lot of trouble.It's for the French people to be
more tolerant, like what he experienced in England.
And he's pushing for religious freedom.
It's something we're going to talk about in a second,
religious toleration. One of the things he says about
the Royal Exchange in London, talking about guys who sit down
(10:43):
and do business. Here's another great quote from
him. He says this.
They're the Jew, the Muhammadan,meaning the person that follows
Muhammad. The the Muslim and the Christian
transact business together as though they were all of the same
religion and give the name to infidels to none but bankrupts,
meaning when they're doing business, their religious
(11:05):
disagreements seem to go away. The real only, the only the real
heretic is sorry. Is that a sentence?
I feel like I'm slurring my words.
I've had no drinks yet, but I'm about to have some.
The person that's really the heretic is the one that's bad.
With money, everyone else can learn to get along together.
Though he struggled with money early in his career, he and a
(11:25):
friend found a loophole in the lottery system in France and
became quite wealthy by exploiting it, which is
fantastic. It reminds me of the scene like
how Forrest Gump becomes rich because his friend invests in
Apple or something like that. And he's like, we just don't
have to worry about money anymore because, you know, it's
one less thing to worry about. That's kind of Voltaire.
You don't have to worry about money after this because they
(11:46):
are making a killing exploiting this loophole in the in the
system with the French lottery. He had so many mistresses.
He had so many ladies. He was never actually fully like
formally married. He just slept with the ladies.
Again, VoLTE just being just just naughty.
(12:06):
But in 1733, he did find what heconsidered the love of his life.
Her name was Emily. OK, now here's the problem with
that. She was the wife of another man
and they just kind of had a thing together and the other guy
just kind of put up with it. I think that's called a cuck.
He just kind of put up with it and he was married to this
chick. And yet he let Voltaire just
have access to her and they had this love affair and they, you
know, it's just a just a happy little throuple.
(12:27):
But Emily was the the love of his life.
Now the reason he liked her as though he had had a bunch of
mistresses and he'd have he'd slept with a bunch of women.
He loved her for her mind. Now, don't don't get me wrong,
he also probably likes other things too, but he loved her for
her mind because she was interested in the things he was
interested in. She liked Newton.
She wanted to do higher criticism of the Bible and
(12:49):
critique the Bible. He has a quote where he says of
her, Emily, he says that Lady whom I look upon is a great man.
That's what he says of this woman.
She understands Newton. She despises superstition.
And in short, she makes me happy.
When you can look upon your woman as if she's a man, you
might be gay. Now he retired eventually to the
(13:09):
countryside on the border of France in Geneva.
So he also made a quip where he said that when the Protestants
come after him, he has to run tothe French side of his estate,
and when the Catholics come after him, he has to run to the
side of his estate that is closer to Geneva.
He died, sadly again. He's not still around today.
I wish he was, but he died on May 30th, 1778, which is the
same year as his rival Rousseau.They died the same year.
(13:33):
What is happening? He was forbidden from having a
Christian burial, though he got one before the sensor arrived.
So he just snuck it, snuck it inthere just right under the wire,
you know? So that is our boy Voltaire.
Now, Voltaire is an interesting figure.
He's so prolific. He talks about so many things.
He's so interesting, he's so witty.
(13:54):
But because he is a Jack of all trades, it's not one of those
things where you just say here'sthe one big idea in Plato,
here's the one big idea in Hegel, here's the one big idea
in whatever. He has some big ideas, but he's
involved in so many things. I'm just going to mention a
bunch of little ideas, which would be really huge because his
influence is enormous. But again, he's more of a man of
(14:15):
letters and not a technical philosopher.
A few important things. Here's one of the biggest things
you need to know about Voltaire.His push for religious
toleration. That is a huge thing with him.
OK, he wanted to break the chains of Christianity,
specifically French Roman Catholicism, but he ends up
(14:36):
critiquing Christianity pretty harshly.
He he is not a fan of organized religion.
He's a deist. We'll talk about that in a
second. But that is his.
That is his idea. So he hates it.
He has this famous phrase which is ET Hazel enfam, which means
crush the infamous or crush the infamous ones.
What he means by that is crush this arbitrary power, arbitrary
(15:00):
power in the government, specifically arbitrary power in
the church. Though he rubs elbows with high
society. He thinks that people should
have a certain level of freedom and a certain level of equality
and a certain level of dignity, not just because you're an
aristocrat or something like that.
So he wants to crush the infamous things, and he pushes
(15:24):
for religious toleration a lot. The reason he makes fun of so
many religions is because he's wanting this to not be such a
big deal. He's wanting to push religious
toleration when he writes against the Catholics in his
native France. He constantly is is Speaking of
the Quakers from England, which are this kind of strange sects
in England that don't do the sacraments, that kind of wait
(15:47):
for God to come and move them and give them a word to say and
they shake and tremble, which iswhy people call them Quakers.
He kind of uses them as this example of what religion should
be. It's egalitarian.
It's there's not this huge hierarchy, They're not crushing
people under all these rituals and these kind of things.
Now I'll make fun of the Quakerstoo.
To be fair, Voltaire is a hater.But anyway, keep that in mind.
(16:12):
Religious toleration. There was a guy named Jean
Colasse who was executed becausehe was accused of killing his
son for converting to Catholicism.
A lot of people thought he did not actually do that.
He was tortured and but it it seemed that he maybe did not do
that. And Voltaire thought that was
ridiculous. And so he raised a big stink
because of the execution of Colas.
(16:33):
There's also a guy named Chevalier de la Bar who was
beheaded for insulting a religious procession.
And I think like, you know, breaking or, or defiling A
crucifix or something. And so that infuriated Voltaire.
It pissed him off. And so he also that that was
also something where he tried toraise a stink.
So he's pushing for religious toleration.
(16:53):
What was his religious views? He's not an atheist.
I've seen people call him an atheist.
He's not an atheist just becausehe makes fun of organized
religion. He is a very popular thing.
If you were a a thinker during the Enlightenment period, he is
what's called a deist or deist. Some people say a deist is
somebody who believes that thereis a higher power, there is some
sort of God that kind of starts everything like a big clock
(17:14):
maker. He winds up the clock and he
starts it going and it's tellingthe time all perfect.
But then that's kind of it. He doesn't really care for you.
He doesn't really get involved. He doesn't do miracles.
Why would he need to do miracles?
He's already set up the world ina perfect way.
Like you're a bad mechanic if you have to keep going back to
the car to do things in it. The car should just function on
its own if you've produced it correctly.
(17:34):
And so that was kind of the ideaof the Diaz.
So he wants, he does believe there's some something, the
world is too smart, complicated,whatever to just come from
random chance for Voltaire. So he's a deist, but that also
means he's against organized religion.
So he's against the view of God and the religious rituals of
Christianity, of Judaism, of Islam, etcetera.
(17:55):
Doubt was a big thing, kind of asystematic doubt he thought was
very helpful. That's part of the ways that you
break the the the reins of superstition over people.
In fact, he and one of his mistresses took part in biblical
higher criticism. What does that mean?
It means biblical higher criticism.
This was also big with Spinoza and some other people at this
time. But biblical higher criticism is
(18:16):
where you treat the Bible like any other book and you kind of
tear it apart. You point out the
inconsistencies. You point out what you believe
to be contradictions. You show how certain things
couldn't happen, how this book doesn't work with this book.
So he and one of his mistresses did did that when they weren't
doing other things. He was also skeptical of
metaphysical speculation. He didn't like that just these
(18:38):
thinkers, especially these, these Catholic thinkers would
just sit around and speculate all these fine metaphysical
points instead of actually helping people, instead of
actually doing something in the world that would actually be
helpful. He loved empiricism and science.
He considered himself a man of science.
He absolutely adored Locke. John Locke, he thought was the
(18:58):
man, which is interesting because today most analytic
philosophers think that John Rock is John Rock.
That's his, that's his wrestler name.
They think that John Locke is kind of a mediocre philosopher.
He's he's better in his political philosophy than it is
in his epistemology and metaphysics.
But Voltaire loved John Locke and he loved Locke's critique of
(19:19):
Descartes concept of innate ideas.
Meaning for John Locke, you are this tabula rasa.
You have this ability to acquireinformation, but it needs to
come empirically. It's got to come through the
senses and then your brain can put it together or your mind
rather can put it together. For someone like Descartes,
though, there are these innate ideas that you don't experience.
For example, the concept Infinity.
You never experience anything infinite that couldn't have come
(19:41):
through your experience. What does Infinity taste like?
What color is it? So Descartes thinks that's
already in you. Maybe it's planted there by God
or something like that. Whereas Locke thinks that
Locke's kind of the poster childfor this emerging empiricism.
He adored Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton is a big deal,
obviously, at this time because of his scientific, reasonable
explanation for what happens instead of these metaphysical
(20:03):
and spiritual reasons for why things do what they do.
As a scientist, this is also interesting.
He was an early proponent of inoculation, which is the idea
behind vaccines. So he would have, he would have
been a a vaccine person today. Again, whether you love that or
hate that, I don't care. I'm talking about Voltaire.
Oh dear, dear. He, he mentions this.
It's really interesting. He's trying to encourage the
(20:23):
people of France to try inoculation.
And he mentions where it comes from.
So according to Voltaire, the idea of inoculation actually
comes from the Muslim world where they would sell off their
daughters into sex slavery, which is a common thing them and
still happens today in certain places in the in the Muslim
world. And So what what they would do
is if somebody had some sort of disease, let's say you had
smallpox or something like this,you would cut one of those
(20:46):
boils, take some of the pus, cutanother person and put it in
them. And they would get a milder
version of it. But then they would never get
the really bad one. And so it wouldn't pockmark
their skin and make them where they were not desirable to be
sold as a sex slave. So Voltaire mentions that and
basically is like, OK, the reason that they're doing it is
not great, but the method works as far as inoculation.
(21:08):
So he will he will promote that as well.
A lot of the religious of peoplein France thought that that was
bad to do. It was somehow harming people.
And so he fights against that. He believed he would have been
considered a capitalist today. He believed in using your wealth
for what you wanted, that you got to do, that it's not just
something that you should be told how to do.
And he believed in private property.
(21:29):
He also had a lot of private property and he had a lot of
money. He believed, and this is one of
the most important things with Voltaire.
He believed in the progress of the Enlightenment and humanity.
Let me pause for a second so youcan reset your mind.
We've said naughtiness. I've made the the letter V
several times. Let's just reset our minds and
focus on this because this is big for Voltaire.
(21:51):
Voltaire is not just a humanities guy in the sense that
I am. I'm a humanities guy in the
sense that I like philosophy andhistory and psychology and the
liberal arts. Notice I put psychology is a
liberal art. I actually don't think it's
science. I think it's a liberal art.
But that's that's that's a humanities kind of thing.
OK, you're studying these these certain kinds of categories,
(22:12):
these liberal arts type of educational endeavors.
There's another sense in which you can use the term humanities
or a stronger term for, for someone like Voltaire, almost
like a humanism, where he is a humanist in the sense that he is
trying to promote the flourishing of humanity.
He will give, I can't even remember this is if this is a
quote that I read from him or not, but he will give his
respect to God. But his love to humans is kind
(22:34):
of the, the, the idea. It's it's humans that need help.
God's doing fine. OK, Some king doesn't care about
a rat in their ship. They just don't care.
God's even further off than that.
He doesn't really care. We respect him 'cause he made
this great world and it's awesome.
But really we just need to be focusing on how to make our
lives better. The the the Enlightenment
because of guys like Voltaire. Whether you love him or hate
(22:56):
him, the Enlightenment does leadto more practical human
flourishing than probably any other point in human history.
I'm not saying it leads to more moral flourishing, not saying it
leads to more religious flourishing, not saying it leads
to more. What I'm saying is practical
human flourishing. Technology, medicine, freedom,
not burning people at the stake,this kind of stuff.
(23:17):
It makes lives better. People being accountable or the
government's being accountable to their people.
These are Enlightenment ideas, OK?
People not just being so starklycontrasted with their social
order if they're an aristocrat versus some peasant or some
plebeian. And so he is trying to progress
the Enlightenment and he is trying to progress the cause of
humanity. Let me give you an example where
(23:39):
he does this with a razor's edge.
In 1755, there was a huge earthquake that happened in a
town called Lisbon that killed over 60,000 people.
That's just in Lisbon, 60,000 more in the surrounding areas.
People at this time were asking why?
Why would God allow this? What is the purpose of this?
Why do our lives see this terrible thing?
(24:01):
So everyone's asking this and people have different answers,
right? Some theologians would say
something like God is judging Lisbon because of, you know,
maybe the naughtiness and maybe,maybe some stuff they had done,
their impiety. Rousseau.
And this pisses Voltaire off. Rousseau says that part of the
reason the earthquake happened in Lisbon is because it's there
(24:21):
to show us that that that's not how humans should be living.
What makes an earthquake dangerous is cities.
If you're just by yourself out in the countryside and there's
an earthquake, nothing happens. But if you're in cities,
everything collapses and people die.
So it's it's almost Russo is basically pushing his agenda of
saying in the same way that Russo, if you hadn't listened to
that lecture, listen to it in the same way that Russo thought
that society is what corrupted us and culture is what corrupted
(24:44):
us. We started out good or neutral
and society made us bad. When we live together in cities
and there's more culture in society, an earthquake is just
another way of showing that we shouldn't be doing that, and we
need to go back to being these savages in the woods.
We can't, but we just need to beaware of the the negative
influences of society, and Voltaire hates that.
Voltaire thinks that cities and the Enlightenment progress are
(25:06):
good, not bad, and that Rousseau's just grinding his
axe. Rousseau, though, is going to
write his most famous work. It's a work called Candide.
OK, it's a short work. I'd highly recommend that you
read it. It's called Candide, and it is
written partially against, probably primarily against the
view of Godfried Wilhelm Leibnitz and his doctrine of the
best of all possible worlds. What does that mean?
(25:30):
Let's back up for a second trying to trying to make this
interesting because I'm giving you a bunch of random things
here. Leibnitz is one of the greatest
geniuses of all time. I will at some point have a
lesson or lessons on Leibnitz. He's fantastic.
Love him or hate him, he's brilliant.
He's smarter than you, regardless of who you are.
Leibnitz had a doctrine when he's talking about the problem
(25:51):
of evil, the theodicy, this kindof stuff, and it's called the
the best of all possible worlds.Here's what here's what that
means when you look around. If there's a God who's all
knowing, which Leibnitz assumes,and if there's a God that is all
powerful, which Leibnitz assumes, as does most of his
audience, then you have to say that this is the best world that
(26:11):
God could have created. You think God's like, for his
glory is going to make the 386thbest world he could have made.
By world there I mean universe of the things he's made.
You think he's going to make the62nd best universe he could have
made? No, he's going to make the best
one. If he's the best and he's the
smartest and he's the most powerful, then biological
(26:31):
deduction, this world is the best of all possible worlds that
God could have made. And you say, no, it isn't
mosquitoes, cancer, a bunch of bad things.
If I was God, I would have made the world without those.
To which liveness would respond.Do you understand how arrogant
you sound? Does God maybe not know some
(26:53):
things that you know? Like, if you knew everything
that God knew and you were just as powerful as God, guess what?
You would do exactly what he does.
That's kind of Leibniz's point. When we say that this is the
best of all possible worlds, first of all, we mean it for
God. God obviously thinks this is
what gives him the most glory, else he would have done
something else. But Leibniz also means it for
humanity. Well, Leibniz, how can that be?
(27:13):
Because there's cancer and there's war and there's all
these bad things. And he's like, yes, but those
bad things build character. Those bad things build
toughness. Those bad things let you see
good things better. Like sometimes it's OK to have a
little bit of bad to bring abouta greater good, right?
Giving a kid a shot, which hurts, keeps the kid from dying,
(27:34):
which is a good thing. So Leibnitz with he this is not
his thing, but he wouldn't use these words, but he would agree
with the sentiment that in the same way that a kid thinks their
parents are being bad parents when they have to get a shot,
although the parents are actually doing what's best.
So God is doing what's best, even though we don't necessarily
see it, but it's because we're wrong.
OK, That's Leibnitz on this particular issue.
And so it's a it's what's calledit's, it's a type of
(27:56):
philosophical optimism. It's saying, hey, those things
are broken in the world. There's a reason for it and
there's a good God watching overus and everything's fine.
Voltaire, after not only all theterrible things he's seen in his
life, but especially this earthquake, has an axe to grind
against Leibnitz and he's going to say, no, forget your
optimism. The world is broken and bad, and
what we need to do is band together as humans and progress
(28:18):
the views of the Enlightenment to make humanity better.
OK, so he, he writes this work indeed.
And throughout the work, he's just mocking Leibniz over and
over and over again. Bad things will happen and
someone in the story will be like, this is for the best of
all possible worlds. That's why this happened and and
Voltaire's mocking liveness for this.
So there's there's a character in the work again, I recommend
(28:39):
that you read his name's Doctor Pengloss.
Pengloss, which means all word, all tongue, all language.
Like he's just this superfluous,you know, pontificating scholar
that's supposed to be really wise.
But the book's really making funof him.
And every time something bad happens and a bunch of bad
things happen in the book, basically this guy's like, this
was for the best. Don't worry about it.
And Voltaire's trying to show why that's stupid.
(29:01):
In fact, he's got a great quote.I'm going to going to read this
from from Candide. This is from Doctor Pangloss and
here Voltaire is mocking the thethinking of the world is the the
best of all possible worlds. He says this.
This is what Pangloss says. It is demonstrable said he that
things cannot be otherwise than they are for all being created
for an end. All is necessarily for the best
(29:23):
end. Observe that the nose has been
formed to bear spectacles. Thus we have spectacles.
Notice how he's reversing it. He's going backwards.
We're not saying we made spectacles to fit on the nose.
We're saying the nose was made so that it could wear
spectacles. Legs are visibly designed for
stockings, and we have stockings.
Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles.
(29:44):
Therefore my Lord has a magnificent castle, for the
greatest Baron in the province ought to be the best lodge.
Pigs were made to be eaten, therefore we eat pork all year
round. Consequently, they who assert
that all is well have said a foolish thing.
They should have said all is forthe best.
You have that kind of stuff throughout Candide where
Voltaire is making fun of this idea and he's trying to say
(30:06):
stop. Stop your fake philosophical
optimism in guys like Leibnitz giving you revealed religion.
Instead, band together and actually help humanity.
Stop focusing on the next life. Stop focusing on these rituals
and these hierarchies. Make people's lives better.
That's what Voltaire is pushing.Not saying he's right or wrong.
I'm just saying he's Voltaire and he's a big, big deal I can't
(30:31):
make. There we go.
All right, so big deal for Voltaire.
Now how does candid end? It ends with candid saying, but
let us cultivate our garden. What does he mean by that?
He means stop focusing on this metaphysical dribble and let's
focus on helping the progress ofhumanity.
(30:52):
We'll focus on our garden, not all these other things that I've
been through in the best of all possible worlds and all of that.
He's meaning help humanity. Well, that's Voltaire.
Let's talk a little bit about some of his vices and then I'll
read a small section from our boy Bolti Voltaire.
Voltaire to the Voltaire vices. He believed there were
(31:13):
irreducible differences between the races, so he probably held
to a mild type of racism, which is not good.
He also said some harsh things against the Jews.
So this is one of the very few places where he and Martin
Luther do do a similar thing. So he says some harsh things
about the Jews. He always tried to piss people
off, like he was always trying to make people mad.
(31:34):
He's he had so many enemies. By the way, let this be a lesson
to you. If you hate me in my podcast,
I'm just being like Voltaire trying to make enemies.
For example, he wrote a poem about Joan of Arc making fun of
her, how men had lust for her and how the church, you know,
manipulated her story for their purposes.
That got him in trouble. He had a play that made fun of
(31:56):
Muhammad and basically showed him to be a fraudster and so he
got in trouble for that and he was totally a ladies man.
Just just a ladies man. VoLTE just all the way.
They love that wig. They love his, you know,
probably fancy quill pen or whatever he had and wrote with.
(32:22):
They love it. OK, so Voltaire is a ladies man,
a certainly a womanizer. And a lot of them were
mistresses. They were a lot of them were
wives of other dudes. So one of the things we don't
understand in our society as things like swinging and open
marriage and stuff has become more popular here in France.
It wasn't done as much in England as France.
The French again, they've they've got that, they've got
(32:43):
that Jean sais quoi. No, not what they've got
something about them, but it waspretty common for if your wife
was unhappy, she'd take a lover and maybe if you're unhappy,
you'd take a lover, but you'd still be married and live in
your, you know, big castle building thing.
And so he did that a lot. So he was a ladies man.
He had many mistresses. Listen to this one though,
including his niece. Bad Voltaire.
(33:07):
We got to turn that V upside down.
So, so not great with that. Now, where would I recommend
that you start reading an authorthat has written so many things.
Do you just Google Voltaire and then start reading?
No, it there are three works, ifyou will read them, that I think
will be really helpful and powerful in understanding
(33:27):
Voltaire's thoughts without having to read everything the
first if you want to work a fiction, because he is, after
all, again, he's a literary figure more than he is a
philosopher. He's a writer more than he is a
philosopher. His his work indeed.
I recommend that you read that. You can even listen to it on
Audible and while you're in the car.
It's great. His philosophical letters, his
letters to England would be the next thing that I recommend that
(33:49):
you read. But the most important thing
that I think you should read from him, I think I have it like
I have one right here. Yes, this is his Pocket
Philosophical Dictionary. This one's published by Oxford,
but there's other translations. I think this is the best intro
to Voltaire. So if you just want one work to
read from Voltaire, I would readhis Pocket Philosophical
Dictionary. It's neither philosophical nor a
(34:10):
dictionary. What he's going to do is he's
going to go in alphabetical order on different topics, and
he's going to basically tell youwhat he thinks about those
things. And it's interesting, it's
fascinating. There are topics on all kinds of
topics in here, and it's really good to get to see him as a
writer. It's really good to get to see
him as a polemicist. It's really good to hear his
satire, to be a satirist satirist.
(34:31):
I think I might have said that incorrectly earlier.
Beep. So, but it's it's really, really
good. So I want to end by reading a
small section out of the pocket philosophical dictionary where
he is making fun of Abraham, father Abraham, you know, who
had many sons. And so I'm going to read that
section just so you kind of see the way that he writes.
So one of his entries is a on Abraham.
(34:52):
And what he's going to do is he's going to make fun of this
story where Abraham is very old and the Bible has him traveling
very far and also has him like, you know, pawning off his wife
to some king, saying that it's his sister, etcetera.
It's a, it's an interesting story, but he is going to, he's
going to write in such a way. Here's what he'll do.
He'll mock religion, but always in such a way to where it's hard
(35:13):
to pin him down. So we'll be like, this is
ridiculous, which is why we knowit's a miracle because only God
could do it and it's not reasonable, which is why you got
to have faith. That's one big F you to or, you
know, organized religion. But that's how he'll write.
So that way when you say, wait, did you say this this bad thing
about the Bible? He'll be like, no, I said that
God did it through a miracle. It's just not science.
(35:34):
And so that's that's kind of hisstyle.
So we read you a small section. Can we put a fireplace behind
us? Is that a way to do that right
here? Let me read it right here.
Just a small section. We're not going to put the, the
the words up on the screen. I want you to just sit here and
hear Father Christmas read this to you.
Hardly had Abraham arrived in the small, mountainous country
(35:55):
of Shechem. When famine forced him to leave.
He went to Egypt with his wife in search of food.
It is 500 miles from Shechem to Memphis.
Not meaning Tennessee, meaning Egypt.
Is it natural to go that far to beg for corn in a country where
one does not understand the language?
That is an odd journey for someone to undertake at the age
(36:16):
of nearly 140. You see his sarcasm and he's
like, hmm, if you were hungry, would you travel all this, all
these miles on foot in a language you don't understand
when you're 140 years old, according to the story.
Interesting. He brought his wife Sarah to
Memphis. She was extremely young, almost
a child compared to him since she was only 65 years old.
Again, you see his wit and sarcasm.
Because she was very beautiful, he decided to take advantage of
(36:38):
her good looks. Pretend to be my sister, he
said, so that people will treat me well.
For your sake, he ought rather to have told her.
Pretend to be my daughter. The king fell in love with Sarah
and gave the supposed brother many sheep.
Oxen he asses, she asses. Those are donkeys, but they
don't have to be camels, Menservants and maidservants.
Which proves that Egypt at the time was a very refined and very
(37:01):
powerful Kingdom, therefore veryold, and that brothers who
handed over their sisters to thekings of Memphis were handsomely
rewarded. So this king who has a harem is
now going to take the 65 year old beautiful woman and reward
this brother who hands over his sister, because that's must,
just must be what they do in Egypt.
So you see his mockery, You see his sarcasm.
(37:22):
He writes on a bunch of different topics like that.
He hates on a bunch of differentpeople.
But that is our boy Voltaire. Fascinating figure intellectual
powerhouse bad in a lot of areasgood in other areas and so
anyway that's Voltaire. I hope that you have enjoyed
learning about our Volti like subscribe, retweet, make me
(37:45):
famous. OK, thanks for joining in
ideological.
Hello and welcome to another edition of everyone's favorite
podcast, Ideological. I'm your host, Zach Lee, and
today's episode is brought to you by I'm Trying to think, Who
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Chuck E Cheese, our mascot, is arat and everything's covered in
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(00:29):
You're a sneezing child. Chuck E Cheese try to get a
disease when you jump in the ball pit.
OK, so today is a very exciting day on on ideological because
we're going to talk about a guy who is bigger than Michael
Jordan. Not physically.
We're going to talk about a guy who's bigger than The Beatles.
Today we are talking about the legendary Voltaire.
(00:49):
OK, so really excited to talk about Voltaire.
He is, his influence is enormous.
I cannot emphasize to you enoughwhat a big deal this guy is.
He's kind of a big deal bigger than Ron Burgundy is Voltaire
old the, the old big V, let's not call him that, actually,
Voltaire. So I want to tell you why this
(01:09):
figure is so influential. He's kind of the rival to Russo.
If you haven't listened to Russolecture #Russo go listen to it.
But he is his influence is enormous.
Let me just tell you about why this guy is a powerhouse and
then we'll talk about his life and some of his thoughts and
things like that. And should be a ton of fun.
So first of all, Voltaire, he isone of the most famous literary
(01:33):
figures in all of history, one of the top writers to ever come
out of France. And during the later part of his
life, towards the end of his life, he is the most famous
author in the world at that time.
So kind of a big deal. He is a true Renaissance man.
He is a true what is called Amdouletre, a man of letters.
(01:53):
He was a poet, A playwright, a political satirist, A literary
author, a philosopher, A historian, a scientist, a
mathematician. He is good at everything.
And he's not so much of A philosopher though, like when we
think of a philosopher like Plato or Descartes or something
like this. He is more of what's called a
philosoph. The philosophs were guys like
(02:13):
Montesquieu and Denis di Dajo. Jean Jacques Rousseau was
philosoph. They're kind of these public
intellectuals that are big during the Enlightenment era,
whether they're for or against it.
These are kind of the philosophs.
His works are tremendously so prolific.
I I don't know what you had to write in high school.
(02:36):
I don't know the longest book you've ever read.
I don't know the longest paper you've ever written.
Let me just mention some things about Voltaire.
His works are so prolific that the Voltaire Foundation in
Oxford is attempting to make a critical edition of his works,
and it's supposed to be about 200 volumes.
He contributed many articles to di de Ro's Encyclopedie, the
encyclopedia, kind of the Reformation from Delambert and
(02:58):
and di der 0. I'm a say it with a cool little
Frenchy sound so that you know, you know, I'm, I'm from the city
of love, not from there. Couldn't be French, but I've
been there. It's great.
He wrote an estimated 20,000 letters over 50 plays and would
sometimes write for 18 hours a day.
(03:22):
Voltaire, he's the guy. I want to show you a picture.
We'll throw it up on the screen.I want to show you a picture of
his grave at the Pantheon in Paris.
I got to visit, which is kind offunny because my wife's like,
we're in the city of love, let'sMake Love.
There's champagne and all these things.
And I'm like, no, we're going togo see some dead guy's tombs who
wrote a bunch of old works. So here's a picture of
(03:45):
Voltaire's tomb, and then acrossfrom him is his enemy, Jean
Jacques Rousseau. And here's a picture of me
flicking off Rousseau's tomb. That's how I feel about that.
I'm not sure how the French feelabout that if they see this, but
hey, I am who I am. He knew French, English, Latin
and Greek really well. And then he had some functional
knowledge also of Italian and Spanish.
(04:06):
Again, no big deal. Don't know how many languages
you speak, probably like pig Latin.
And then you try to speak, I'm in Texas, everyone here speaks
like what sounds like a racist form of Spanish.
Like I hear him say it. And I think you should just
stick with English. You're going to offend somebody.
His goal was to be the Virgil ofFrance.
He was Louis the 15th historian and was ducked into the French
Academy with some help from the King's mistress.
(04:28):
What we're going to see that Voltaire is a little bit
naughty. Voltaire is not his real name.
That is his nom de plume, his pin name, if you will.
His real name is Francois Marie Arouet.
OK, Francois Marie Arouet. Where does the name Voltaire
come from? Here's what's interesting.
Nobody knows. It's a secret nobody knows.
(04:52):
Actually, scholars have an idea.The most common theory is that
it's a Latinized version of his name, Aroue with the Lejeune,
which means the younger, right? Lejeune, so Rea the younger.
And then you move some letters around.
It's like an anagram. And you can spell Voltaire,
baby. Some think he's using the French
(05:14):
words volaire. And TA meaning or volley is what
it be and TA meaning to fly. And the word earth, something
that is a play on the Latin wordwalluntas will or desire
something. It's to disparage his dad, whom
he thought was too authoritarian.
There's a bunch of theories nobody really knows for sure,
(05:34):
but the most common is that somehow he mixed around some
letters with a title or name, maybe even with some Latin
thrown in there, and he came up with his pin name.
He occurs in a lot of pop reference cultures, from songs
to movies to shows. Recently I was watching and this
is such a great show. Don't watch it with your kids,
but it's a great show. The great hilarious.
(05:55):
And Voltaire figures on that. They call him Voltaire.
Voltaire, his influence will be so enormous.
Let let me say this comes from aa scholar named Alan Coors,
who's an Enlightenment scholar. And he said this and I thought
it was really interesting. Voltaire's influence is so
massive that after Voltaire, people will look to the big
(06:17):
answers of life. They'll look for the meaning of
life in literature instead of philosophy and theology.
OK, He's that powerful. Who is VoLTE?
Who is this Francois Marie? That's Marie as a middle name.
You're a boy anyway. Born November 21st, 1694 in
Paris. In Paris, he lost his mother
(06:38):
when he was 7 and his dad wantedhim to become a lawyer.
Being a lawyer, something dads just want their kids to be
throughout a lot of history, 'cause you make that sweet
scorrilla, make that money. He was educated at the Jesuit
College of Louis Legrand in Paris, which is one of the most
prestigious institutions in France.
Like it's it's a big deal. Other people that went there in
addition to Voltaire are guys like Mirabeau from the French
(07:01):
Revolution, Lafayette from the American Revolution, some names
you might have heard in history.It's a big deal.
When he got older, he became secretary to the French
ambassador, but he had an affairwith a high official's daughter.
Again, just just just focusing on that V, which didn't go well
for for him. He was imprisoned twice in the
(07:23):
Bastille, the famous kind of prison there.
And he was also exiled. They're like you're in prison.
Another time in his life, he'll be beat up and put in prison and
he got exiled. He was exiled to England, where
he polished his English. He was already a prolific writer
in in French, and he also learned how to to write really
well in in English while he was there.
I just realized there's a sweet sunbeam on my face.
(07:49):
See, even God wants me to talk about Voltaire right now.
I'm going to adjust this and move away from that.
So he worked on his English while he was in England.
He was there for over over 2 years, almost three years.
He was especially enamored by John Locke and Isaac Newton,
right? Obviously, we know that as the
inventor of the lock and the guywho invented Apple's falling,
(08:09):
the philosopher John Locke and his empiricism and Isaac Newton
and his views about physics, gravity and that kind of stuff,
he got to meet Alexander Pope, George Barkley and others.
OK, not to be confused with Charles Barkley, who also he did
not meet along with Michael Jordan, unlike France.
Let me tell you why England was so impactful for our boy VoLTE.
Unlike France, where Catholicismreigned supreme and had a
(08:31):
monarchy, there was more religious toleration in England
and the people had more of a voice within a parliamentary
system. So if you're in France, you have
the Roman Catholic Church, you have the monarchy.
In England, though, there's parliament and there's differing
religions because it's a Protestant country.
And so they accept more, you know, a little bit more
(08:52):
religious toleration. He said, Voltaire, this is a
great quote from him. In his Philosophical Letters, he
says this. He says, talking about England,
if there were only one religion in England, there would be
danger of tyranny. If there were two, they would
cut each other's throats. But there are 30.
And they live happily together in peace.
OK. His work Philosophical Letters,
(09:13):
which it's called and it, it's, it's called, you know, letters
to the English people or lettersto England or letters from
England or the English letters. It's got a bunch of names, but
the most common title is Philosophical Letters.
His work Philosophical Letters was a critique of France's
politics and religion by pointing out the things that he
learned in England after he was exiled there.
So it's kind of one big middle finger to the French powers.
(09:36):
He likes the French people, but the French powers and this work
would get him in a lot of trouble.
His work, Philosophical Letters ended up getting a warrant for
his arrest. And what they did is they took
his work and they burned it likepublicly, as if to condemn
Voltaire because Voltaire is so freaking witty.
If you, if you know one thing about Voltaire, he wants
toleration and he's smarter thanyou and he's witty and he is so
(09:59):
mocking and sarcastic, like he is the most caustic, but in the
best way kind of thinker. It's, it's really fun to read
him because he's so sarcastic and so mocking and so witty.
He's just always got a jab. So they burn his work and he
makes some sort of comment to his buddy to say something like
we're making progress. Whereas they used to burn the
author. Now they just burn his books,
(10:21):
right. So, so he, he comes back from
England, he, he's written, he, he writes this work.
It gets him in a lot of trouble.It's for the French people to be
more tolerant, like what he experienced in England.
And he's pushing for religious freedom.
It's something we're going to talk about in a second,
religious toleration. One of the things he says about
the Royal Exchange in London, talking about guys who sit down
(10:43):
and do business. Here's another great quote from
him. He says this.
They're the Jew, the Muhammadan,meaning the person that follows
Muhammad. The the Muslim and the Christian
transact business together as though they were all of the same
religion and give the name to infidels to none but bankrupts,
meaning when they're doing business, their religious
(11:05):
disagreements seem to go away. The real only, the only the real
heretic is sorry. Is that a sentence?
I feel like I'm slurring my words.
I've had no drinks yet, but I'm about to have some.
The person that's really the heretic is the one that's bad.
With money, everyone else can learn to get along together.
Though he struggled with money early in his career, he and a
(11:25):
friend found a loophole in the lottery system in France and
became quite wealthy by exploiting it, which is
fantastic. It reminds me of the scene like
how Forrest Gump becomes rich because his friend invests in
Apple or something like that. And he's like, we just don't
have to worry about money anymore because, you know, it's
one less thing to worry about. That's kind of Voltaire.
You don't have to worry about money after this because they
(11:46):
are making a killing exploiting this loophole in the in the
system with the French lottery. He had so many mistresses.
He had so many ladies. He was never actually fully like
formally married. He just slept with the ladies.
Again, VoLTE just being just just naughty.
(12:06):
But in 1733, he did find what heconsidered the love of his life.
Her name was Emily. OK, now here's the problem with
that. She was the wife of another man
and they just kind of had a thing together and the other guy
just kind of put up with it. I think that's called a cuck.
He just kind of put up with it and he was married to this
chick. And yet he let Voltaire just
have access to her and they had this love affair and they, you
know, it's just a just a happy little throuple.
(12:27):
But Emily was the the love of his life.
Now the reason he liked her as though he had had a bunch of
mistresses and he'd have he'd slept with a bunch of women.
He loved her for her mind. Now, don't don't get me wrong,
he also probably likes other things too, but he loved her for
her mind because she was interested in the things he was
interested in. She liked Newton.
She wanted to do higher criticism of the Bible and
(12:49):
critique the Bible. He has a quote where he says of
her, Emily, he says that Lady whom I look upon is a great man.
That's what he says of this woman.
She understands Newton. She despises superstition.
And in short, she makes me happy.
When you can look upon your woman as if she's a man, you
might be gay. Now he retired eventually to the
(13:09):
countryside on the border of France in Geneva.
So he also made a quip where he said that when the Protestants
come after him, he has to run tothe French side of his estate,
and when the Catholics come after him, he has to run to the
side of his estate that is closer to Geneva.
He died, sadly again. He's not still around today.
I wish he was, but he died on May 30th, 1778, which is the
same year as his rival Rousseau.They died the same year.
(13:33):
What is happening? He was forbidden from having a
Christian burial, though he got one before the sensor arrived.
So he just snuck it, snuck it inthere just right under the wire,
you know? So that is our boy Voltaire.
Now, Voltaire is an interesting figure.
He's so prolific. He talks about so many things.
He's so interesting, he's so witty.
(13:54):
But because he is a Jack of all trades, it's not one of those
things where you just say here'sthe one big idea in Plato,
here's the one big idea in Hegel, here's the one big idea
in whatever. He has some big ideas, but he's
involved in so many things. I'm just going to mention a
bunch of little ideas, which would be really huge because his
influence is enormous. But again, he's more of a man of
(14:15):
letters and not a technical philosopher.
A few important things. Here's one of the biggest things
you need to know about Voltaire.His push for religious
toleration. That is a huge thing with him.
OK, he wanted to break the chains of Christianity,
specifically French Roman Catholicism, but he ends up
(14:36):
critiquing Christianity pretty harshly.
He he is not a fan of organized religion.
He's a deist. We'll talk about that in a
second. But that is his.
That is his idea. So he hates it.
He has this famous phrase which is ET Hazel enfam, which means
crush the infamous or crush the infamous ones.
What he means by that is crush this arbitrary power, arbitrary
(15:00):
power in the government, specifically arbitrary power in
the church. Though he rubs elbows with high
society. He thinks that people should
have a certain level of freedom and a certain level of equality
and a certain level of dignity, not just because you're an
aristocrat or something like that.
So he wants to crush the infamous things, and he pushes
(15:24):
for religious toleration a lot. The reason he makes fun of so
many religions is because he's wanting this to not be such a
big deal. He's wanting to push religious
toleration when he writes against the Catholics in his
native France. He constantly is is Speaking of
the Quakers from England, which are this kind of strange sects
in England that don't do the sacraments, that kind of wait
(15:47):
for God to come and move them and give them a word to say and
they shake and tremble, which iswhy people call them Quakers.
He kind of uses them as this example of what religion should
be. It's egalitarian.
It's there's not this huge hierarchy, They're not crushing
people under all these rituals and these kind of things.
Now I'll make fun of the Quakerstoo.
To be fair, Voltaire is a hater.But anyway, keep that in mind.
(16:12):
Religious toleration. There was a guy named Jean
Colasse who was executed becausehe was accused of killing his
son for converting to Catholicism.
A lot of people thought he did not actually do that.
He was tortured and but it it seemed that he maybe did not do
that. And Voltaire thought that was
ridiculous. And so he raised a big stink
because of the execution of Colas.
(16:33):
There's also a guy named Chevalier de la Bar who was
beheaded for insulting a religious procession.
And I think like, you know, breaking or, or defiling A
crucifix or something. And so that infuriated Voltaire.
It pissed him off. And so he also that that was
also something where he tried toraise a stink.
So he's pushing for religious toleration.
(16:53):
What was his religious views? He's not an atheist.
I've seen people call him an atheist.
He's not an atheist just becausehe makes fun of organized
religion. He is a very popular thing.
If you were a a thinker during the Enlightenment period, he is
what's called a deist or deist. Some people say a deist is
somebody who believes that thereis a higher power, there is some
sort of God that kind of starts everything like a big clock
(17:14):
maker. He winds up the clock and he
starts it going and it's tellingthe time all perfect.
But then that's kind of it. He doesn't really care for you.
He doesn't really get involved. He doesn't do miracles.
Why would he need to do miracles?
He's already set up the world ina perfect way.
Like you're a bad mechanic if you have to keep going back to
the car to do things in it. The car should just function on
its own if you've produced it correctly.
(17:34):
And so that was kind of the ideaof the Diaz.
So he wants, he does believe there's some something, the
world is too smart, complicated,whatever to just come from
random chance for Voltaire. So he's a deist, but that also
means he's against organized religion.
So he's against the view of God and the religious rituals of
Christianity, of Judaism, of Islam, etcetera.
(17:55):
Doubt was a big thing, kind of asystematic doubt he thought was
very helpful. That's part of the ways that you
break the the the reins of superstition over people.
In fact, he and one of his mistresses took part in biblical
higher criticism. What does that mean?
It means biblical higher criticism.
This was also big with Spinoza and some other people at this
time. But biblical higher criticism is
(18:16):
where you treat the Bible like any other book and you kind of
tear it apart. You point out the
inconsistencies. You point out what you believe
to be contradictions. You show how certain things
couldn't happen, how this book doesn't work with this book.
So he and one of his mistresses did did that when they weren't
doing other things. He was also skeptical of
metaphysical speculation. He didn't like that just these
(18:38):
thinkers, especially these, these Catholic thinkers would
just sit around and speculate all these fine metaphysical
points instead of actually helping people, instead of
actually doing something in the world that would actually be
helpful. He loved empiricism and science.
He considered himself a man of science.
He absolutely adored Locke. John Locke, he thought was the
(18:58):
man, which is interesting because today most analytic
philosophers think that John Rock is John Rock.
That's his, that's his wrestler name.
They think that John Locke is kind of a mediocre philosopher.
He's he's better in his political philosophy than it is
in his epistemology and metaphysics.
But Voltaire loved John Locke and he loved Locke's critique of
(19:19):
Descartes concept of innate ideas.
Meaning for John Locke, you are this tabula rasa.
You have this ability to acquireinformation, but it needs to
come empirically. It's got to come through the
senses and then your brain can put it together or your mind
rather can put it together. For someone like Descartes,
though, there are these innate ideas that you don't experience.
For example, the concept Infinity.
You never experience anything infinite that couldn't have come
(19:41):
through your experience. What does Infinity taste like?
What color is it? So Descartes thinks that's
already in you. Maybe it's planted there by God
or something like that. Whereas Locke thinks that
Locke's kind of the poster childfor this emerging empiricism.
He adored Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton is a big deal,
obviously, at this time because of his scientific, reasonable
explanation for what happens instead of these metaphysical
(20:03):
and spiritual reasons for why things do what they do.
As a scientist, this is also interesting.
He was an early proponent of inoculation, which is the idea
behind vaccines. So he would have, he would have
been a a vaccine person today. Again, whether you love that or
hate that, I don't care. I'm talking about Voltaire.
Oh dear, dear. He, he mentions this.
It's really interesting. He's trying to encourage the
(20:23):
people of France to try inoculation.
And he mentions where it comes from.
So according to Voltaire, the idea of inoculation actually
comes from the Muslim world where they would sell off their
daughters into sex slavery, which is a common thing them and
still happens today in certain places in the in the Muslim
world. And So what what they would do
is if somebody had some sort of disease, let's say you had
smallpox or something like this,you would cut one of those
(20:46):
boils, take some of the pus, cutanother person and put it in
them. And they would get a milder
version of it. But then they would never get
the really bad one. And so it wouldn't pockmark
their skin and make them where they were not desirable to be
sold as a sex slave. So Voltaire mentions that and
basically is like, OK, the reason that they're doing it is
not great, but the method works as far as inoculation.
(21:08):
So he will he will promote that as well.
A lot of the religious of peoplein France thought that that was
bad to do. It was somehow harming people.
And so he fights against that. He believed he would have been
considered a capitalist today. He believed in using your wealth
for what you wanted, that you got to do, that it's not just
something that you should be told how to do.
And he believed in private property.
(21:29):
He also had a lot of private property and he had a lot of
money. He believed, and this is one of
the most important things with Voltaire.
He believed in the progress of the Enlightenment and humanity.
Let me pause for a second so youcan reset your mind.
We've said naughtiness. I've made the the letter V
several times. Let's just reset our minds and
focus on this because this is big for Voltaire.
(21:51):
Voltaire is not just a humanities guy in the sense that
I am. I'm a humanities guy in the
sense that I like philosophy andhistory and psychology and the
liberal arts. Notice I put psychology is a
liberal art. I actually don't think it's
science. I think it's a liberal art.
But that's that's that's a humanities kind of thing.
OK, you're studying these these certain kinds of categories,
(22:12):
these liberal arts type of educational endeavors.
There's another sense in which you can use the term humanities
or a stronger term for, for someone like Voltaire, almost
like a humanism, where he is a humanist in the sense that he is
trying to promote the flourishing of humanity.
He will give, I can't even remember this is if this is a
quote that I read from him or not, but he will give his
respect to God. But his love to humans is kind
(22:34):
of the, the, the idea. It's it's humans that need help.
God's doing fine. OK, Some king doesn't care about
a rat in their ship. They just don't care.
God's even further off than that.
He doesn't really care. We respect him 'cause he made
this great world and it's awesome.
But really we just need to be focusing on how to make our
lives better. The the the Enlightenment
because of guys like Voltaire. Whether you love him or hate
(22:56):
him, the Enlightenment does leadto more practical human
flourishing than probably any other point in human history.
I'm not saying it leads to more moral flourishing, not saying it
leads to more religious flourishing, not saying it leads
to more. What I'm saying is practical
human flourishing. Technology, medicine, freedom,
not burning people at the stake,this kind of stuff.
(23:17):
It makes lives better. People being accountable or the
government's being accountable to their people.
These are Enlightenment ideas, OK?
People not just being so starklycontrasted with their social
order if they're an aristocrat versus some peasant or some
plebeian. And so he is trying to progress
the Enlightenment and he is trying to progress the cause of
humanity. Let me give you an example where
(23:39):
he does this with a razor's edge.
In 1755, there was a huge earthquake that happened in a
town called Lisbon that killed over 60,000 people.
That's just in Lisbon, 60,000 more in the surrounding areas.
People at this time were asking why?
Why would God allow this? What is the purpose of this?
Why do our lives see this terrible thing?
(24:01):
So everyone's asking this and people have different answers,
right? Some theologians would say
something like God is judging Lisbon because of, you know,
maybe the naughtiness and maybe,maybe some stuff they had done,
their impiety. Rousseau.
And this pisses Voltaire off. Rousseau says that part of the
reason the earthquake happened in Lisbon is because it's there
(24:21):
to show us that that that's not how humans should be living.
What makes an earthquake dangerous is cities.
If you're just by yourself out in the countryside and there's
an earthquake, nothing happens. But if you're in cities,
everything collapses and people die.
So it's it's almost Russo is basically pushing his agenda of
saying in the same way that Russo, if you hadn't listened to
that lecture, listen to it in the same way that Russo thought
that society is what corrupted us and culture is what corrupted
(24:44):
us. We started out good or neutral
and society made us bad. When we live together in cities
and there's more culture in society, an earthquake is just
another way of showing that we shouldn't be doing that, and we
need to go back to being these savages in the woods.
We can't, but we just need to beaware of the the negative
influences of society, and Voltaire hates that.
Voltaire thinks that cities and the Enlightenment progress are
(25:06):
good, not bad, and that Rousseau's just grinding his
axe. Rousseau, though, is going to
write his most famous work. It's a work called Candide.
OK, it's a short work. I'd highly recommend that you
read it. It's called Candide, and it is
written partially against, probably primarily against the
view of Godfried Wilhelm Leibnitz and his doctrine of the
best of all possible worlds. What does that mean?
(25:30):
Let's back up for a second trying to trying to make this
interesting because I'm giving you a bunch of random things
here. Leibnitz is one of the greatest
geniuses of all time. I will at some point have a
lesson or lessons on Leibnitz. He's fantastic.
Love him or hate him, he's brilliant.
He's smarter than you, regardless of who you are.
Leibnitz had a doctrine when he's talking about the problem
(25:51):
of evil, the theodicy, this kindof stuff, and it's called the
the best of all possible worlds.Here's what here's what that
means when you look around. If there's a God who's all
knowing, which Leibnitz assumes,and if there's a God that is all
powerful, which Leibnitz assumes, as does most of his
audience, then you have to say that this is the best world that
(26:11):
God could have created. You think God's like, for his
glory is going to make the 386thbest world he could have made.
By world there I mean universe of the things he's made.
You think he's going to make the62nd best universe he could have
made? No, he's going to make the best
one. If he's the best and he's the
smartest and he's the most powerful, then biological
(26:31):
deduction, this world is the best of all possible worlds that
God could have made. And you say, no, it isn't
mosquitoes, cancer, a bunch of bad things.
If I was God, I would have made the world without those.
To which liveness would respond.Do you understand how arrogant
you sound? Does God maybe not know some
(26:53):
things that you know? Like, if you knew everything
that God knew and you were just as powerful as God, guess what?
You would do exactly what he does.
That's kind of Leibniz's point. When we say that this is the
best of all possible worlds, first of all, we mean it for
God. God obviously thinks this is
what gives him the most glory, else he would have done
something else. But Leibniz also means it for
humanity. Well, Leibniz, how can that be?
(27:13):
Because there's cancer and there's war and there's all
these bad things. And he's like, yes, but those
bad things build character. Those bad things build
toughness. Those bad things let you see
good things better. Like sometimes it's OK to have a
little bit of bad to bring abouta greater good, right?
Giving a kid a shot, which hurts, keeps the kid from dying,
(27:34):
which is a good thing. So Leibnitz with he this is not
his thing, but he wouldn't use these words, but he would agree
with the sentiment that in the same way that a kid thinks their
parents are being bad parents when they have to get a shot,
although the parents are actually doing what's best.
So God is doing what's best, even though we don't necessarily
see it, but it's because we're wrong.
OK, That's Leibnitz on this particular issue.
And so it's a it's what's calledit's, it's a type of
(27:56):
philosophical optimism. It's saying, hey, those things
are broken in the world. There's a reason for it and
there's a good God watching overus and everything's fine.
Voltaire, after not only all theterrible things he's seen in his
life, but especially this earthquake, has an axe to grind
against Leibnitz and he's going to say, no, forget your
optimism. The world is broken and bad, and
what we need to do is band together as humans and progress
(28:18):
the views of the Enlightenment to make humanity better.
OK, so he, he writes this work indeed.
And throughout the work, he's just mocking Leibniz over and
over and over again. Bad things will happen and
someone in the story will be like, this is for the best of
all possible worlds. That's why this happened and and
Voltaire's mocking liveness for this.
So there's there's a character in the work again, I recommend
(28:39):
that you read his name's Doctor Pengloss.
Pengloss, which means all word, all tongue, all language.
Like he's just this superfluous,you know, pontificating scholar
that's supposed to be really wise.
But the book's really making funof him.
And every time something bad happens and a bunch of bad
things happen in the book, basically this guy's like, this
was for the best. Don't worry about it.
And Voltaire's trying to show why that's stupid.
(29:01):
In fact, he's got a great quote.I'm going to going to read this
from from Candide. This is from Doctor Pangloss and
here Voltaire is mocking the thethinking of the world is the the
best of all possible worlds. He says this.
This is what Pangloss says. It is demonstrable said he that
things cannot be otherwise than they are for all being created
for an end. All is necessarily for the best
(29:23):
end. Observe that the nose has been
formed to bear spectacles. Thus we have spectacles.
Notice how he's reversing it. He's going backwards.
We're not saying we made spectacles to fit on the nose.
We're saying the nose was made so that it could wear
spectacles. Legs are visibly designed for
stockings, and we have stockings.
Stones were made to be hewn and to construct castles.
(29:44):
Therefore my Lord has a magnificent castle, for the
greatest Baron in the province ought to be the best lodge.
Pigs were made to be eaten, therefore we eat pork all year
round. Consequently, they who assert
that all is well have said a foolish thing.
They should have said all is forthe best.
You have that kind of stuff throughout Candide where
Voltaire is making fun of this idea and he's trying to say
(30:06):
stop. Stop your fake philosophical
optimism in guys like Leibnitz giving you revealed religion.
Instead, band together and actually help humanity.
Stop focusing on the next life. Stop focusing on these rituals
and these hierarchies. Make people's lives better.
That's what Voltaire is pushing.Not saying he's right or wrong.
I'm just saying he's Voltaire and he's a big, big deal I can't
(30:31):
make. There we go.
All right, so big deal for Voltaire.
Now how does candid end? It ends with candid saying, but
let us cultivate our garden. What does he mean by that?
He means stop focusing on this metaphysical dribble and let's
focus on helping the progress ofhumanity.
(30:52):
We'll focus on our garden, not all these other things that I've
been through in the best of all possible worlds and all of that.
He's meaning help humanity. Well, that's Voltaire.
Let's talk a little bit about some of his vices and then I'll
read a small section from our boy Bolti Voltaire.
Voltaire to the Voltaire vices. He believed there were
(31:13):
irreducible differences between the races, so he probably held
to a mild type of racism, which is not good.
He also said some harsh things against the Jews.
So this is one of the very few places where he and Martin
Luther do do a similar thing. So he says some harsh things
about the Jews. He always tried to piss people
off, like he was always trying to make people mad.
(31:34):
He's he had so many enemies. By the way, let this be a lesson
to you. If you hate me in my podcast,
I'm just being like Voltaire trying to make enemies.
For example, he wrote a poem about Joan of Arc making fun of
her, how men had lust for her and how the church, you know,
manipulated her story for their purposes.
That got him in trouble. He had a play that made fun of
(31:56):
Muhammad and basically showed him to be a fraudster and so he
got in trouble for that and he was totally a ladies man.
Just just a ladies man. VoLTE just all the way.
They love that wig. They love his, you know,
probably fancy quill pen or whatever he had and wrote with.
(32:22):
They love it. OK, so Voltaire is a ladies man,
a certainly a womanizer. And a lot of them were
mistresses. They were a lot of them were
wives of other dudes. So one of the things we don't
understand in our society as things like swinging and open
marriage and stuff has become more popular here in France.
It wasn't done as much in England as France.
The French again, they've they've got that, they've got
(32:43):
that Jean sais quoi. No, not what they've got
something about them, but it waspretty common for if your wife
was unhappy, she'd take a lover and maybe if you're unhappy,
you'd take a lover, but you'd still be married and live in
your, you know, big castle building thing.
And so he did that a lot. So he was a ladies man.
He had many mistresses. Listen to this one though,
including his niece. Bad Voltaire.
(33:07):
We got to turn that V upside down.
So, so not great with that. Now, where would I recommend
that you start reading an authorthat has written so many things.
Do you just Google Voltaire and then start reading?
No, it there are three works, ifyou will read them, that I think
will be really helpful and powerful in understanding
(33:27):
Voltaire's thoughts without having to read everything the
first if you want to work a fiction, because he is, after
all, again, he's a literary figure more than he is a
philosopher. He's a writer more than he is a
philosopher. His his work indeed.
I recommend that you read that. You can even listen to it on
Audible and while you're in the car.
It's great. His philosophical letters, his
letters to England would be the next thing that I recommend that
(33:49):
you read. But the most important thing
that I think you should read from him, I think I have it like
I have one right here. Yes, this is his Pocket
Philosophical Dictionary. This one's published by Oxford,
but there's other translations. I think this is the best intro
to Voltaire. So if you just want one work to
read from Voltaire, I would readhis Pocket Philosophical
Dictionary. It's neither philosophical nor a
(34:10):
dictionary. What he's going to do is he's
going to go in alphabetical order on different topics, and
he's going to basically tell youwhat he thinks about those
things. And it's interesting, it's
fascinating. There are topics on all kinds of
topics in here, and it's really good to get to see him as a
writer. It's really good to get to see
him as a polemicist. It's really good to hear his
satire, to be a satirist satirist.
(34:31):
I think I might have said that incorrectly earlier.
Beep. So, but it's it's really, really
good. So I want to end by reading a
small section out of the pocket philosophical dictionary where
he is making fun of Abraham, father Abraham, you know, who
had many sons. And so I'm going to read that
section just so you kind of see the way that he writes.
So one of his entries is a on Abraham.
(34:52):
And what he's going to do is he's going to make fun of this
story where Abraham is very old and the Bible has him traveling
very far and also has him like, you know, pawning off his wife
to some king, saying that it's his sister, etcetera.
It's a, it's an interesting story, but he is going to, he's
going to write in such a way. Here's what he'll do.
He'll mock religion, but always in such a way to where it's hard
(35:13):
to pin him down. So we'll be like, this is
ridiculous, which is why we knowit's a miracle because only God
could do it and it's not reasonable, which is why you got
to have faith. That's one big F you to or, you
know, organized religion. But that's how he'll write.
So that way when you say, wait, did you say this this bad thing
about the Bible? He'll be like, no, I said that
God did it through a miracle. It's just not science.
(35:34):
And so that's that's kind of hisstyle.
So we read you a small section. Can we put a fireplace behind
us? Is that a way to do that right
here? Let me read it right here.
Just a small section. We're not going to put the, the
the words up on the screen. I want you to just sit here and
hear Father Christmas read this to you.
Hardly had Abraham arrived in the small, mountainous country
(35:55):
of Shechem. When famine forced him to leave.
He went to Egypt with his wife in search of food.
It is 500 miles from Shechem to Memphis.
Not meaning Tennessee, meaning Egypt.
Is it natural to go that far to beg for corn in a country where
one does not understand the language?
That is an odd journey for someone to undertake at the age
(36:16):
of nearly 140. You see his sarcasm and he's
like, hmm, if you were hungry, would you travel all this, all
these miles on foot in a language you don't understand
when you're 140 years old, according to the story.
Interesting. He brought his wife Sarah to
Memphis. She was extremely young, almost
a child compared to him since she was only 65 years old.
Again, you see his wit and sarcasm.
Because she was very beautiful, he decided to take advantage of
(36:38):
her good looks. Pretend to be my sister, he
said, so that people will treat me well.
For your sake, he ought rather to have told her.
Pretend to be my daughter. The king fell in love with Sarah
and gave the supposed brother many sheep.
Oxen he asses, she asses. Those are donkeys, but they
don't have to be camels, Menservants and maidservants.
Which proves that Egypt at the time was a very refined and very
(37:01):
powerful Kingdom, therefore veryold, and that brothers who
handed over their sisters to thekings of Memphis were handsomely
rewarded. So this king who has a harem is
now going to take the 65 year old beautiful woman and reward
this brother who hands over his sister, because that's must,
just must be what they do in Egypt.
So you see his mockery, You see his sarcasm.
(37:22):
He writes on a bunch of different topics like that.
He hates on a bunch of differentpeople.
But that is our boy Voltaire. Fascinating figure intellectual
powerhouse bad in a lot of areasgood in other areas and so
anyway that's Voltaire. I hope that you have enjoyed
learning about our Volti like subscribe, retweet, make me
(37:45):
famous. OK, thanks for joining in
ideological.
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