Understanding Western Society
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The spread of the Enlightenment spirit of inquiry and debate owed a great deal to the work of the philosophes (fee-
French power and prestige | France was the wealthiest and most populous country in Europe; French was the international language of the elite |
Political discontent in France | Rising political discontent in France led to calls for reform among educated elite |
Ambitions of French philosophes | French philosophes were determined to spread their ideas throughout the international Republic of Letters |
One of the greatest philosophes, the baron de Montesquieu (mahn-
Having gained fame by using wit as a weapon against cruelty and superstition, Montesquieu set out to apply the critical method to the problem of government in The Spirit of Laws (1748). The result was a complex, comparative study of republics, monarchies, and despotisms. Showing that forms of government were shaped by history and geography, Montesquieu focused on the conditions that would promote liberty and prevent tyranny. He argued for a separation of powers, with political power divided and shared by a variety of classes and legal estates.
The most famous and perhaps most representative philosophe was François Marie Arouet, who was known by the pen name Voltaire (vohl-
Returning to France, Voltaire had the great fortune of meeting Gabrielle-
While living at Cirey, Voltaire wrote works praising England and popularizing English science. He lauded Newton as history’s greatest man because he had used his genius for the benefit of humanity. In the true style of the Enlightenment, Voltaire mixed the glorification of science and reason with an appeal for better individuals and institutions.
Like almost all of the philosophes, however, Voltaire was a reformer, not a revolutionary, in politics. He pessimistically concluded that the best one could hope for in the way of government was a good monarch because human beings “are very rarely worthy to govern themselves.” Nor did Voltaire believe in social and economic equality, insisting that the idea of making servants equal to their masters was “absurd and impossible.” The only realizable equality, Voltaire thought, was that “by which the citizen only depends on the laws which protect the freedom of the feeble against the ambitions of the strong.”3
Voltaire’s philosophical and religious positions were much more radical than his social and political beliefs. In the tradition of Bayle, his writings challenged the Catholic Church and Christian theology at almost every point. Like many eighteenth-
The ultimate strength of the philosophes lay in their dedication and organization. The philosophes felt keenly that they were engaged in a common undertaking that transcended individuals. Their greatest and most representative intellectual achievement was, quite fittingly, a group effort — the seventeen-