Voltaire (1694–1778)

A man loses his son to suicide then the local religious fanatics claim he murdered his son because his son was about to change his religion to theirs and then tortured him to death, no this is not a country in the modern Middle East this is pre-Revolutionary France. A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings by the French Enlightenment thinker Voltaire who looks to exonerate a man of accused of killing his son and the religious fanaticism that inspired the injustice.

In reaction to the 1762 miscarriage of justice relating to the suicide of Marc-Antione Calas that ultimately led to the execution of his father Jean by religious fanatics “out for justice”. The whole affair caused a scandal resulting in the philosopher Voltaire became the champion for justice for the surviving Calas family, which brought about this Treatise. Voltaire describes the fatal events of the night of Marc-Antione’s death with evidence that he was for a time had studied how to take his own life, that the timing of his death around the celebration of the anniversary of a well-planned massacre of Huguenots—French Protestants—in Toulouse during the Wars of Religion that led to conspiratorial stories about Jean killing his son because he wanted to convert to Catholicism while ignoring that he had been fine with a younger son already doing that, and the total lack of justice in the entire process. The Treatise of Tolerance then becomes a clarion call for religious toleration while also attacking religious fanaticism—Voltaire specifically points to French Jesuits of his time with able arguments—and the superstition surrounding religion that leads to situations like in Toulouse. Voltaire also writes excellent endnotes that are very informative, though the decision of the publishers of this edition to put those Notes at the end of the book and not at the end of the chapters was a bit annoying. This is one of the most important works of philosophy and religion from the Enlightenment era for those that support the freedom of religion and are opponents to religious fanaticism.

A Treatise on Tolerance and Other Writings is a very well written defense of a wrongly executed man while arguing for religious tolerance and against religious fanaticism by the Enlightenment’s best known philosopher, Voltaire.… (more)

What do you say about one of the most famous satires of the western cannon written in 1759 by French philosopher Voltaire?

It’s biting political and religious satire featuring our friend, Candide, a naïve young man trying to make sense of the world while living through a series of misadventures after he is ejected from his very pleasant youthful life .

He has been taught by his tutor, Professor Pangloss, that everything works out for the best and that we live in the best of all worlds; that everything has evolved to precisely this point of perfection because of the perfection that went before. For example one of Pangloss’s assertions is that eyeglasses being the shape they are shows the perfection of the shape of the nose.

I’ve never been a great fan of comedy by absurdity, but what really struck me is that many of our institutions such as the church, ruling countries, armies and our ideas of paradise haven’t come that far in the almost 300 years since this was written.… (more)

Voltaire is to Man as Einstein is to Gravity. An ancient 120,000-foot-tall alien intelligence, struggles to comprehend the smallness of Earth’s inhabitants. From the perspective of such a magnificent life-form, in terms of mental faculty and sheer size (secondary ) are really no different from humans. This is the premise of Micromegas, a rare novel of Voltaire. On a side note I remember that Voltaire was asked on his deathbed to renounce the devil to which he replied,”This is not a good time to make enemies”
Great man , great book, cool cucumber - indeed… (more)