The French Age of Enlightenment was an age of seemingly unquenchable curiosity, discussions and reasoning. The Enlightenment was a movement towards reason which means it was a movement to leave superstition in the past. Many felt that now was a time for progress. To make progress meant leaving blind faith behind; trading it in for both critical and imaginative thinking.
Imagination, rationality and reason were important to philosophers of the age. In this essay natural science and its metaphysical dynamics are discussed using two of the Enlightenment’s greatest philosophers, Voltaire and Diderot. The styles of the two philosophers are compared.
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Hume noted that superstition was being challenged by enthusiasm (Hume 1993). For someone to say that they were motivated to action by a vision for God was not acceptable to the philosophers in the Enlightenment. That does not mean they were all Atheists; it is only that the idea of supernatural phenomena had no place in their theories.
Voltaire and Diderot agreed on basic concepts of how a search for wisdom was done. Only when a person allowed themselves the luxury of critical thought would it be possible to gain the ability to understand the illogic of never questioning church leaders. Citizens willing to understand that there was more than fate to making their life’s path could experience a new freedom. An understanding that each individual could make thoughtful choices to determine what happened in life could improve their quality of life.
The members of the Enlightenment seem in many ways to be naïve but that is also exciting. The goal they set for themselves, the study of wisdom, is a lofty goal. Because there is a lot of tension, controversy and even arguing in society today; Descartes’ definition of what is true is need more than ever. Not only that but when one learns new information from his senses or from great thought on the issue it is perfectly reasonable to change an opinion (Descartes 2005). Diderot and Voltaire were comfortable with this approach.
Descartes suggestions for finding what is true are reasonable and rational as one would expect. For example, we should notice the truths that make so much sense they are automatically obvious to us. Our eyes and ears are maybe the most important. He doesn’t mention what we now call intuition but intuition can simply be common sense so it fits too. (Descartes 2005)
Forming a natural science needed the ingredients of curiosity, imagination and reason; capabilities that both Diderot and Voltaire possessed. They both thought about not only what their senses perceived; also they considered the mystery of what beyond knew with their physical senses. They used reason and imagination to puzzle out answers. The Church did not like them pursuing this subject, by doing so they found trouble from church and civil leaders that did not like change.
Diderot thinks of wonderful solutions to problems and possible answers to processes that have been later proved by science to be useful. For example, Diderot suggested a touch method so that blind people could read. (Shank 2010)
Diderot and Voltaire used humor and other writing methods keep their readers engaged. Diderot used humor and art to make his points compared to Voltaire who made shocking or satirical comments. For example, Voltaire respected Descartes when others dismissed him but that didn’t stop Voltaire from writing with his characteristic stabbing humor. Voltaire’s style was to write with some sharp criticism and then follow with some praise. (Halsall 1998)
Voltaire is a more rigid thinker that follows from the Newtonian way of studying; but as did Diderot, he embraced questioning about the universe: What is it? How did it originate?
The older natural philosophers added to the wisdom of the next generation throughout time. Voltaire was highly influenced by Newton; Newton was highly influenced by Descartes. Some of their theories were found acceptable. These are the theories that were kept and improved upon. That is how science works today by building on the research that is appropriate to get closer to the truth.
Diderot had a great practical influence on the Enlightenment movement by the compiling of the great encyclopaedia of the philosophers of the day. His way of imaginative thinking about the universe is the way many modern scientific theories starting out. Voltaire had greater influence on modern times because he stressed the Newtonian method of bringing order out of chaos. His support of Newtonians’ methods of studying the natural sciences were influenced to develop into the scientific method we have today.
Looking back now, the development of the basis for natural science seems an inevitable consequence from the questioning of superstitions using real or known information from the natural world.
References
Bristow, William, "Enlightenment," The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2011 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2011/entries/enlightenment/.
Descarte, René. Letter of the Author. In A discourse on method: Meditations on the first philosophy principles of philosophy. Translated by John Veitch. London, England: Everyman, 2005.
Diderot, Denis. D’Alembert’s Dream. Ian Johnston (trans.). 1769. http://records.viu.ca/~johnstoi/diderot/dalembertsdream.htm.
Gay, Peter. The Enlightenment: The Science of Freedom. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1996.
Halsall, Paul. “Voltaire (1694-1778): Letters on the English or Lettres Philosophiques, c. 1778,” Modern History. Fordham University, Last modified August, 1998. http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1778voltaire-lettres.asp.
Hume, David David Hume Selected Essays. Stephen Copley and Andrew Edgar (Eds.)
Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. 1993.
Shank, J.B., "Voltaire" The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2010 Edition), Edward N. Zalta(ed.), http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2010/entries/voltaire/.
