Voltaire (born François-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)

Pictures

• Voltaire (age 41)

• The Marquise du Châtelet

• Frederick II of Prussia (Frederick the Great)

• Voltaire's estate at Ferney, near Geneva

Outline of Today's Lecture

• Voltaire's life

• "Écrasez l'infâme"
  • Deism and the Argument from Design

  • Morality and the Critique of Organized Religion

• Voltaire's politics
  • A pragmatic royalism

  • Tolerance and freedom of opinion

• Candide (1758) and the death of Optimism

Names, Terms and Concepts

• Mme Denis

• Jean Calas

• absolutism

• Lisbon earthquake

• Seven Years' War

Additional resources available on the Internet

• On-line Text of Candide. (Note: This is a different translation from the one we are using in this class.)

• How's your French? Try Candide in the original.