A Little History of Philosophy (Little Histories)

by Nigel Warburton

Voltaire was unusual amongst philosophers in being rich. As a young man he had been part of a syndicate that had found a flaw in the state lottery and had bought thousands of winning tickets. He invested wisely and became even richer. This gave him the financial freedom to champion the causes he believed in. Rooting out injustice was his passion. One of his most impressive acts was to defend the reputation of Jean Calas, who had been tortured and executed for supposedly murdering his own son. Calas was clearly innocent: his son had committed suicide, but the court had ignored the evidence. Voltaire managed to get the judgment overturned. There was no chance of consolation for poor Jean Calas, who had protested his innocence to his last breath; but at least his ‘accomplices’ were freed. This is what ‘cultivating our garden’ meant in practice for Voltaire. From the way Voltaire mocks Pangloss' ‘proof’ that God has produced the best of all possible worlds, you might assume that Candide's author was an atheist. In fact, although he had no time for organized religion, he was a deist, someone who believes that there is visible evidence of God's existence and design to be found in nature. For him, looking up at the night sky was all it took to prove that a Creator exists. David Hume was highly sceptical of this idea. His criticisms of this style of reasoning are devastating.