Voltaire Book

In this book, one of the most distinguished living philosophers offers a stimulating, provocative analysis of one of the most intriguing figures of the eighteenth century. Francois-Marie Arouet, who became famous under the name of Voltaire, is remembered today chiefly as the author of Candide, but during his lifetime he was known for his plays and his histories, his active involvement in the religious, scientific, and political controversies of the day, his often scurrilous verse which several times led to his exile, and his philosophical writings. The first major study of Voltaire in some years, this covers both his flamboyant and contradictory personality -- born to a well-to-do French family, he liked to claim that he was illegitimate; the product of a Jesuit education, he spent much of his life denouncing and attempting to redress the abuses of Christianity -- and the genuine contributions that he made to the intellectual life of his times. He was not, Ayer concludes, an original philosopher or scientist. But he was a man of great moral courage, with an authority that increased as he grew older; a man of wit, versatility and pungency who impressed and influenced his contemporaries; a man who, Ayer concludes, deserves to be hailed as the standard bearer of the Enlightenment.