In this comprehensive study of Voltaire's intellectual development, he provides the first full treatment of the effect of the English experience on Voltaire, the diversity of activity at Cirey, and the relation of Voltaire's thought to 17th- and 18th-century philosophy. By devoting considerable attention to the movements, the personal relationships, and the environments that influenced Voltaire, Professor Wade is able to illuminate the sources of Voltaire's thought and show at the same time how he wove them into a unique synthesis. A final chapter in the book contains a general summation...

The author describes the influence on the Enlightenment of the intellectual currents that had been active in France, particularly the historical and humanistic esprit critique and the scientific esprit modern. In the first volume he traces the transformation they brought about in religion, ethics, aesthetics, science, politics, economics, and self-knowledge. His analysis of works by Voltaire, Diderot, and Rousseau--including the Encyclopedic--defines their organic unity and clarifies contradictions that appear to threaten the coherence, consistency, and logical...

The author describes the influence on the Enlightenment of the intellectual currents that had been active in France, particularly the historical and humanistic esprit critique and the scientific esprit moderne. The second volume probes the writings of Morelly, Helvetius, Holbach, Mably, and Condorcet as they reveal the transformation of the esprit philosophique into the esprit revolutionnaire.

Originally published in 1978.

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