Is Voltaire a meme philosopher?

He wasn't really a philosopher, more of a cultural critic and all-round dickweed (not as much as Rousseau though)

>Billy Durant
literally who ?

literally doesn't matter bc fuck him too

Why do people constantly ask if Voltaire is a 'real' philosopher on lit? I can only guess it may be related to the high population of christians in this board

I don't know a lot about his philosophy, except that which is in Candide, a book which everybody should read. We can steer clear of boredom, vice, and poverty by cultivating our gardens - and choose to engage in nebulous ideological and spiritual conflicts at our peril.

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So, literally yes

Contrarian social critic. He was basically attempting to troll every intellectual figure in his time. Largely succeeded if you ask me. Some of the wittiest and funniest shit I've read from the enlightenment.

>largely succeeded

um excuse you

I love him simply for bringing the world
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Candide is a huge troll on Leibniz. All high school kids know about Leibniz is that Voltaire BTFO him forever and ever, amen.

leibniz invented cybernetic (cf Norbert Wiener)

Leibniz did everything. it's pretty disgusting, really.

t. dumbfuck

No, he's not a philosopher.

Wrote "The Story of Philosophy," an entry-level history of philosophy. Actually a very enjoyable read, but I felt like I was learning more about what the author thought than what any given philosopher did. He really gushes about Voltaire and Spinoza, but kinda dismisses Schopenhauer as nothing more than a curmudgeonly fuck (sometimes it's hard to disagree). Also he glosses over some pretty major stuff.

Motivated me to actually read more philosophy though, which I guess is a plus.

I'm a Christian and I enjoy Voltaire's work

why do atheists think we're so jealous and insecure of our religion that we can't enjoy the good books written by atheists? I even enjoy Nietzsche sometimes, although I find him a little funny

it might be different for me because I used to be an atheist so I don't feel like atheism is a terrible and mysterious terra incognita beckoning to me. I can see how some born-'n-raised protestants might feel a frightening kind of thrill at reading a little titillating bit of nihilism, a 'forbidden fruit' kind of rush. I don't think they're the majority of Christians on this board, though.

I think so.

>be me
>go to high school mock government camp called Boy's State
>get put in suite rooms with me and my buddy and two other randos i the connecting room
>one kids is normal, the other kid claims that he is a descendant and servant of Voltaire
>has a poster trying to convert people to his religious like Voltaire following
>hands out flyers talking about voltaire that went deep into his teachings
>kid is in bathroom for a really long time
>we ask him whats up and he tells us "I have to masturbate twice daily not out of pleasure but to release the spawn of Voltaire"
>wut.jpg
>we later here him scream Voltaire as he cums

I still don't know if he was serious or not. It was honestly impressive. You have to be pretty smart to get asked to go to the program so I think he may have been fucking around.

kek

9/10

something something holy roman whatever the fuck

>implying anyone can be more of a contrarian than socrates

I mean it right on the bumper sticker

the man who died of edge

Candide is very funny

wait sorry were we talking about philosophy

this was me

I was also the first person to post
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on Veeky Forums.

What's your name?

There's a reason that Nietzsche dedicated Human, all too Human to him. The two figures have a lot in common.

Cornelius

Also because everyone has been memed into thinking that the Enlightenment directly caused Obama

I read this as Kevin Durant and I was like, haha what

Anyone who starts a statement with a deliberate "...um" is automatically invalidated

What state are you from?

Maine.

You are an outlier. By identifying as Xtian you have signed up with peer group of incurious bigots, hostile to reason. Sorry, you're probs a nice guy.

Candide is very funny.

He's also signed up with a peer group of indignant sensitiveboy feelfaggots that just might kill you for being the Truth

Wrong. Wasn't you then nigger. This was held in Alabama.

Shit, I was actually right about the name then?

What? He was. I mean you could add atheist, but please go ahead and tell me about anything he wrote that was his own and not a reaction to someone else's ideas.

He's mainly known for Candide, his rebuke of Leibnizian optimism, and his English letters, which is like Emersons Englis Traits, basically a circle jerk of anglomania.

He had no philosophy.

Fun fact:

His name means self-willed (his real name is Anne Marie or some shit).
He got it while in school because he was such a fuck machine and trouble maker.

Can any French bros corroborate this?

nobody knows for sure where he got that name from, if I'm not mistaken.

I don't buy that. This was around three hundred years ago. People still speak French. Voltaire is the most well known French intellectual of the enlightenment. That is the consensus from his legions of biographers: le we don't know? Sounds like something snatched up from the dust jacket of some Barnes and noble book.

He's not an outlier on Veeky Forums or among literate people in general. I could just as well have written his post myself.

relax homey, I'm not balls deep in Voltaire scholarship and I never said I was. but every discussion of his name I HAVE read goes a little something like: "welllll it could be this....or this....or this.....or...."

if anyone has anything more legit I'd love to hear it too.

>Motivated me to actually read more philosophy though, which I guess is a plus.

Exactly what it did for me. IMO that made it well worth the time, in spite of its shortcomings.

Putnam said this too. idk....I read Durant after I had already read most of the standard works of philosophy, and I got the impression that it'd just be confusing for a beginner (bc it's so opinionated and non-linear.) not the case, fellas?

bamp for France

Veeky Forums/lit?

>By identifying as Xtian you have signed up with peer group of incurious bigots, hostile to reason.
I didn't say I was a protestant

yeah so anyway enjoy hell

Hell and Satan are part of the Christ myth. I'm not really into mythology anymore. I forgive you for being so judgmental, though. Youre God may not, according to your rules. Have fun in Hell.

Oh, I don't think I'll enjoy it much.

Yeah, not the case at all. Maybe I just didn't know enough to be confused by it, but I found it fairly easy to separate the opinions from the facts, and plus he quotes pretty liberally from the source texts anyway.