Jul 19th 2015

A fresh and rounded look at Voltaire

by Michael Johnson

Michael Johnson is a music critic with particular interest in piano. 

Johnson worked as a reporter and editor in New York, Moscow, Paris and London over his journalism career. He covered European technology for Business Week for five years, and served nine years as chief editor of International Management magazine and was chief editor of the French technology weekly 01 Informatique. He also spent four years as Moscow correspondent of The Associated Press. He is the author of five books.

Michael Johnson is based in Bordeaux. Besides English and French he is also fluent in Russian.

You can order Michael Johnson's most recent book, a bilingual book, French and English, with drawings by Johnson:

“Portraitures and caricatures:  Conductors, Pianist, Composers”

 here.

What would Voltaire make of his uncertain place in the collective American consciousness today? My guess is that he would be outraged.  Educated Americans know a few of his aphorisms and perhaps his Candide novella but they seem to have blocked all memory of his key role in the thinking of their “Founding Fathers”, the 18th century men who drove the creation of the United States. 

A new book takes a step toward righting these wrongs and in the process stimulates A fresh and rounded look at Voltaire interest in the old French sage’s prolific output. Voltaire’s Revolution: Writings from his campaign to free laws from religion (Prometheus Books), by American-born Voltaire enthusiast G.K. Noyer, summarizes the debt that Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Paine, James Madison, John Adams, and even George Washington owe to Voltaire.

The facts are clear. Paine’s Age of Reason has often been cited as a case of plagiarism of Voltaire’s pamphlets. Historian Garry Wills has found a Voltaire antecedent of Patrick Henry’s  “Give me liberty or give me death”. And other historians have identified Voltaire’s revolutionary thinking as inflaming the imagination of virtually the entire reading public in the New World.

Noyer announces her colors in the 55-page introduction, a readable broad-brush overview of Voltaire’s impact then and now. Although the American Revolution was the embodiment of the Europe’s Enlightenment movement, she writes, “a great many Americans don’t know it. “ … (T)he names Voltaire and Montesquieu have virtually vanished in recent years, along with the very word “Enlightenment”. One writer has deplored current American trends as relegating Voltaire to “kooks’ corner” or the “memory hole”. 

Noyer’s comparison of books of the era exposes the disconnection. One scholar she cites discovered that Voltaire “was without question the most frequently discussed … and reprinted” of European writers of the time. Many historians have claimed that French intervention in the Revolutionary War triggered a wave of Francophilia in which “enthusiasm for all things French (including Voltaire) became well-nigh universal”. At Yorktown, where British General Cornwallis surrendered in 1781, French soldiers outnumbered Americans two-to-one.

Voltaire’s campaigns are still regarded as fundamental to an open society – notably on the subject of tolerance -- but his rational mind and his rejection of organized religion underpinned his thinking. In contrast, the English philosopher John Locke, also a believer in tolerance, built his arguments on passages from the Bible. “This surely explains,” says Noyer, “why he (Locke) has replaced Voltaire in American schoolbooks” today.

Voltaire by Michael Johnson, the author

Noyer expects some readers to disagree. “I'm sure I'll read retorts and some howling, and who knows,” she tells me. “Perhaps I'll be proven wrong. But at least readers now have the primary materials and can form their own opinions…. I’m aiming at a rounder picture of Voltaire.”

The introduction is meaty and fresh but the strength of this book relies more on the new translations of work by or about Voltaire.  Noyer says she undertook complete translations of the texts, partly because so much of Voltaire has been unevenly rendered into English over the centuries or printed in obscure compilations difficult to find and categorize. A number of the texts appear here in English for the first time, although Noyer acknowledges that unrestricted use of Voltaire’s work make it impossible to certify “firsts” with any scholarly rigor.

This book is aimed at the general reader; texts are introduced with compact and well-informed introductions to provide context. Her criteria in selecting the twenty Voltaire texts and nine “testimonials” were to focus the book on texts that seem “pertinent and timeless”.

I count myself as a Voltaire enthusiast but had never bothered to unearth some of these gems.  Her rendering of “Frederick the Great’s Eulogy of Voltaire” sums up the man succinctly: “”So many talents, so much diverse knowledge united in a single person, throws readers into an astonishment mixed with surprise… M. de Voltaire was worth an entire academy by himself.”

And Voltaire’s “Reflections for Fools,” on the spread of democracy, is both witty and profound: “If the governed masses were composed of cattle, and the small number governing of cowherds, then the small number would do very well to maintain the masses in ignorance. But such is not the case. Several nations that wore horns and ruminated for a very long time have begun the think.”

On the rejection of Christianity, he writes of Jesus: “He disguised his divinity so well that he let himself be whipped and hanged, despite his miracles. But he also resurrected two days later without anyone seeing him and went back to heaven after solemnly promising that he would soon come back on a cloud …The trouble is that he didn’t come back.”

In one of his most-quoted pamphlets, “Republican Ideas”, his aphorisms ring with a modern truth: 

“Tolerance is as necessary to politics as to religion. It is pride alone that is intolerable. It is pride that revolts minds in trying to force others to think like us. It is the secret of all factions.”

No other book offers such a lively collection of Voltairian prose in so few pages. Even Voltaire scholars acknowledge that Voltaire’ can be hard work for the modern reader. And on this point Noyer has done a major service: choosing what to include as well as what to exclude.




TO FOLLOW WHAT'S NEW ON FACTS & ARTS, PLEASE CLICK HERE!

 


This article is brought to you by the author who owns the copyright to the text.

Should you want to support the author’s creative work you can use the PayPal “Donate” button below.

Your donation is a transaction between you and the author. The proceeds go directly to the author’s PayPal account in full less PayPal’s commission.

Facts & Arts neither receives information about you, nor of your donation, nor does Facts & Arts receive a commission.

Facts & Arts does not pay the author, nor takes paid by the author, for the posting of the author's material on Facts & Arts. Facts & Arts finances its operations by selling advertising space.

 

 

Browse articles by author

More Essays

Jun 27th 2020
An essay about the "the enormously influential 1940 'Head of Christ' painting by evangelical Warner E. Sallman" pictured below.
Jun 17th 2020
EXTRACT: "The diverse, non-human life forms that live in our guts – known as our microbiome – are crucial to our health. A disrupted balance of these contribute to a range of disorders and diseases, including obesity, diabetes, inflammatory bowel disease. It could even affect our mental health..... It’s well known that the microbes living in our guts are altered through diet. For example, including dietary fibre and dairy products in our diets encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria. But mounting evidence suggests that exercise can also modify the types of bacteria that reside within our guts."
Jun 13th 2020
EXTRACT: "Bonhoeffer’s life holds an important lesson for us today, regardless of our religious affiliation or lack thereof. And simply put it is this: you are called upon; you are called on behalf of your neighbor. When you are called to be responsible that is not an obligation which you can decline, discharge or acquit yourself of – it is an infinite responsibility, a “forever commitment” as Charles Blow recently put it. And we all must be prepared to make any sacrifice necessary when we are called."
Jun 11th 2020
EXTRACT: "People differ substantially in how much they’re affected by experiences in their lives. Some people seem to be more affected by daily stress, or the loss of someone close to them. On the other hand, some people seem to get through the same experiences relatively unscathed. Similarly, some people benefit strongly from counselling, or having a support system of close family and friends. Others seem better able to manage on their own. But understanding why some people are more sensitive than others isn’t just a question of how they were raised, and the experiences they’ve been through. In fact, previous research has found that some people in general seem more sensitive to what they experience – and some are generally less sensitive."
Jun 7th 2020
EXTRACT: " The root causes of anthropogenic climate change – which has led to the endangering of countless species across the globe – cannot be adequately grasped in isolation from the technological application of modern science. While Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was certainly justified in calling upon American legislators to “unite behind the science,” neither can we overlook the culpability of science in bringing about the environmental crisis. "
May 23rd 2020
EXTRACT: "The QAnon movement began in 2017 after someone known only as Q posted a series of conspiracy theories about Trump on the internet forum 4chan. QAnon followers believe global elites are seeking to bring down Trump, whom they see as the world’s only hope to defeat the “deep state.” OKM is part of a network of independent congregations (or ekklesia) called Home Congregations Worldwide (HCW). The organization’s spiritual adviser is Mark Taylor, a self-proclaimed “Trump Prophet” and QAnon influencer with a large social media following on Twitter and YouTube."
May 23rd 2020
EXTRACT: "The aim of my research for the Understanding Unbelief programme was to investigate the worldviews of non-believers, since little is known about the diversity of these non-religious beliefs, and what psychological functions they serve. I wanted to explore the idea that while non-believers may not hold religious beliefs, they still hold distinct ontological, epistemological and ethical beliefs about reality, and the idea that these secular beliefs and worldviews provide the non-religious with equivalent sources of meaning, or similar coping mechanisms, as the supernatural beliefs of religious individuals."
May 22nd 2020
EXTRACT: "Psalm 91, for example, reassures believers that God will protect them from “the pestilence that walketh in darkness… A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee”.............Luther was a devout believer but insisted that religious faith had to be joined with practical, physical defences against sickness. It was a good Christian’s duty to work to keep themselves and others safe, rather than relying solely on the protection of God. "
May 22nd 2020
EXTRACT: "Evidence from this study shows clearly that eating foods rich in flavonoids over your lifetime is significantly linked to reducing Alzheimer’s disease risk. However, their consumption will be even more beneficial alongside other lifestyle changes, such as quitting smoking, managing a healthy weight and exercising."
May 5th 2020
EXTRACT: "It’s possible that the answers to questions like, “how do I live a virtuous life?” or “how do we build a good society?” are not the same as they were a few weeks ago."
May 2nd 2020
EXTRACT: "Strangely, those with strong beliefs tend to be admired. The human mind hates uncertainty, so it is comforting to be told what to think, and to form settled opinions. But it is not rational. As the philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote: “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
Apr 21st 2020
Extract: "Humans, Boccaccio seems to be saying, can think of themselves as upstanding and moral – but unawares, they may show indifference to others. We see this in the 10 storytellers themselves: They make a pact to live virtuously in their well-appointed retreats. Yet while they pamper themselves, they indulge in some stories that illustrate brutality, betrayal and exploitation. Boccaccio wanted to challenge his readers, and make them think about their responsibilities to others. “The Decameron” raises the questions: How do the rich relate to the poor during times of widespread suffering? What is the value of a life? In our own pandemic, with millions unemployed due to a virus that has killed thousands, these issues are strikingly relevant.
Apr 20th 2020
Extract: "If we do not seize this crisis as a moment for transformation, then we will have lost the war. If doing so requires reviving notions of collective guilt and responsibility – including the admittedly uncomfortable view that every one of us is infinitely responsible, then so be it; as long we do not morally cop out by blaming some group as the true bearers of sin, guilt, and God’s heavy judgment. A pandemic clarifies the nature of action: that with our every act we answer to each other. In that light, we have a duty to seize this public crisis as an opportunity to reframe our mutual responsibility to one another and the world."
Apr 16th 2020
EXTRACT: "Death is the common experience which can make all members of the human race feel their common bonds and their common humanity."
Apr 7th 2020
EXTRACT: "A crisis such as this one demands that we exercise what the philosopher Immanuel Kant called the ‘public use of reason’ – as opposed to merely the ‘private use of reason’ where, briefly put, the expert, the specialist is tasked with resolving a defined problem. The private use of reason is sufficient when we are dealing with a problem that can be solved by simply applying the appropriate expertise...............The public use of reason asks: how we are defining the problem? Is our definition – our conceptualization of the problem – perhaps part of the problem itself? Is this pandemic solely a problem of public health, or is it also a problem of extreme economic inequality? ..............Since this crisis began, the greatest failure of the administration is not the denial, the lies, the lack of preparedness, but the inability to rally and unify the nation against this common threat, the lack of genuine leadership – Trump’s utter inability to bring the nation together."
Apr 5th 2020
EXTRACT: "Rarely has an architectural experiment aroused such extremes of ire and admiration. One side is convinced the house is a masterpiece. The other expresses brutal condemnation of the entire project (leaky roof, danger of flooding, too-hot, too-cold interiors depending on the American Midwest weather).........Farnsworth encapsulated her personal ambiguity in her comment to a Newsweek interviewer: “This handsome pavilion I own is almost totally unworkable.” She told one journalist, “ … all I got was this glib, false sophistication. The conception of a house as a glass cage suspended in air is ridiculous.”
Apr 1st 2020
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Effects of Good Government fresco, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.
Mar 29th 2020
EXTRACT: "The coronavirus crisis has forced us to look at our behaviour in a way that we’re not used to. We are being asked to act in the collective good rather than our individual preservation and interest. Even for those of us with the best of intentions, this is not so easy."
Mar 23rd 2020
EXTRACT: "In March 2020, my sister Nancy and I did something that, as scholars, we had never done before: we wrote about ourselves, comparing our own experiences receiving cancer care on either side of the Atlantic. As we recently reported in the BMJ, much of our experience is similar. As twins, we both have the same form of cancer. Both of us received excellent treatment in well-established university teaching hospitals. Both of us are now in remission. But there is a glaring difference. Nancy lives in the US, covered under a good private healthcare scheme. I live in the UK, covered by the NHS."
Mar 21st 2020
EXTRACT: "In philosophy, individualism is closely linked with the concept of freedom. As soon as restrictive measures were imposed in Italy, many people felt that their freedom was threatened and started to assert their individuality in various ways. Some disagreed with the necessity of cancelling group gatherings and organised unofficial ones themselves. Others continued to go out and live as they always did. We often assume that freedom is to do as we choose, and that is contrasted with being told what to do. As long as I am doing what the government tells me, I am not free. I am going out, not because I want to, but because that shows I am free. But there is another route to freedom..........."