Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet) published his Philosophical Dictionary, originally in 1764. Here is post one of a series on this work:
We identify this work as to be a secretive work. Voltaire wrote it under a general secrecy, and it remained that way for a long while. He therefore seemed to have been expecting it to be rent, burned, censored, because that happened a short while later while the work was under anonymous authorship yet still. He expected the reaction.
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It comes under certain senses; one resounds to the author as a humanist, as a political observer (not so much a " neccesitator " , a sensationalist, yet more so of an idealist) , a renaissance-man, but however a philosophical wanderer.
Reading this volume, I think it is Locke, More, Hobbesian impression on the author that created his vision. The troubling sense of difficulty he speaks about the dominion, upheaval of Rome and the days' Imperium Dominum, the greedy powers-of-state and the religious powers. This seemed to come together with the Enlightenment of England and Scotland, while he was mis-tempered by the Kings of Prussia and Switzerland , and the powers at France .
How, though, to account for his anti-semitism?
We identify this work as to be a secretive work. Voltaire wrote it under a general secrecy, and it remained that way for a long while. He therefore seemed to have been expecting it to be rent, burned, censored, because that happened a short while later while the work was under anonymous authorship yet still. He expected the reaction.
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But I hear the abbés of Italy, Germany, Flanders, and Burgundy ask: “Why are not we to accumulate wealth
and honors? Why are we not to become princes? The bishops are, who were originally poor, like us; they have enriched
and elevated themselves; one of them has become superior even to kings; let us imitate them as far as we are able.”
Gentlemen, you are right. Invade the land; it belongs to him whose strength or skill obtains possession of it. You
have made ample use of the times of ignorance, superstition, and infatuation, to strip us of our inheritances, and
trample us under your feet, that you might fatten on the substance of the unfortunate. Tremble, for fear that the day
of reason will arrive!"
How, though, to account for his anti-semitism?
