A. The French Philosophy of the Enlightenment
and Rousseau
1. In France the agitation produced by the enlightenment assumed a decidedly revolutionary character. This was due more particularly to the fact that the old order of things had here reached a greater degree of definiteness and had assumed an attitude of contempt for the new thought to a greater extent than in England and Germany, and that at the same time it was more shallow and corrupt than in the other countries. France was revolutionized by English ideas. The visit of Voltaire and Montesquieu to England at the close of the third decade of the century became a matter of epochal importance. It was not until then that the English philosophical, religious, aesthetic and political ideas became known in France and on the continent generally. Voltaire's Lettres sur les Anglais (1734) marks the beginning of a new period in French thought. Voltaire (1694–1778) was not an original thinker. But he possessed the happy faculty of stating scientific ideas and theories with brevity and clearness, and at the same time aggressively. He published a most excellent exposition of Newton's natural philosophy, and he used Locke with splendid effect in his philosophical works. With Locke's principle, that all our ideas proceed from experience, and Newton's discovery of the uniformity of nature as his basis, he criticized the theology of the Church. He does not confine himself in the controversy to logical argument, but likewise employs sarcasm and ridicule and—especially when attacking spiritual and physical oppression and intolerance—profound indignation.—The following are his most important philosophical works: Dictionnaire philosophique portatif (1764) and Le philosophe ignorant (1766).
