Great Ideas of Philosophy

Lecture Thirty-ThreeFrance and the PhilosophesthScope: France in the 18 century was the nation of Voltaire, La Mettrie, Rousseau, Helvetius, Condorcet,D’Alembert, and Diderot, thinkers who appealed directly to the ordinary citizen and encouraged awidespread skepticism toward traditional forms of authority. These were the leaders of the FrenchEnlightenment. They changed the world and supplied it with an idiom that still dominates political andsocial thought. If their collective effort was not a deep and enduring contribution to philosophy, it mustrank as one of the greatest attempts to translate philosophy into social and political action. It is in theircollective effect that the wider world would attach itself to scientific modes of analysis and scientificprograms of reform. By providing ordinary citizens with encyclopedic accounts of the principles anddiscoveries of science, they aimed to defeat superstition and the tyranny of the lettered classes over theuntutored. In the process, they did much to weaken the authority of religious teaching, including its morallessons, and much to weaken the political authority that rested on this teaching.OutlineI. What we take to be the modern worldview is less a contribution of the Renaissance than of the age of scienceththat followed in the 17 century. But consider this pair of quotations:A. “My works are the issue of pure and simple experience, who is the one true mistress. These rules aresufficient to enable you to know the true from the false” (Leonardo da Vinci [1452–1519]).B. “Let us console ourselves for not knowing the possible connections between a spider and the rings ofSaturn, and continue to examine what is within our reach” (Voltaire [1694–1778]).C. Leonardo and Voltaire have much in common, though much, of course, divides them. Both are satisfiedthat the light of experience casts sufficient illumination for us to understand the nature of our difficulties.As vindication of his belief in experience, Voltaire had what Leonardo did not have: the inspiration andachievement of Newton.II. We do not generally think of the witty and discerning minds of the Paris salons as “philosophers.” Few, if any,philosophy journal articles are written now on the musings of Diderot, Holbach, Helvetius, Condorcet, Voltaire,La Mettrie, and others of their ilk.A. The so-called salon philosophes invited the intelligent parts of the world into the long debate. They did notreserve philosophy to the philosophers. They opened up, into the public discourse, issues that long hadexisted primarily at the level at abstract philosophy.B. But sometimes, the wit and wisdom of the philosophes is in danger of losing the refinement of philosophyand dropping to the level of rank propaganda.C. However, the philosophes weren’t actually out to prosecute the agenda of academic philosophy. They wereout to change the world.1. To change the world is to change minds. The only alternative is tyrannical oppression.2. This aspect of the Enlightenment project is most apparent in the publication of Diderot’sEncyclopedia, which focused on the authority of experience, absent any dogmatic teaching or religiousovertones.3. The outline of the massive project was given in the form of a “Tree of Human Knowledge,” developedby Diderot and d’Alembert, that includes everything from working with slate to our knowledge ofGod.III. Voltaire (1694–1778) was a powerful influence on what became this Age of Enlightenment.A. As with Descartes, he had been educated by the Jesuits.B. At 23, he is found serving nearly a year in the Bastille for derisive criticism of the government. This eventwas a harbinger, for within a decade, Voltaire was exiled to England for offending the chevalier de Rohan.1. Voltaire’s reverential attitude toward Newton is part of his general judgment that British philosophyhas triumphed over Cartesianism.22©2004 The Teaching Company Limited Partnership