Voltaire and Rousseau: Two different viewpoints to Approach Life and Society

Voltaire and Rousseau: Two different viewpoints to Approach Life and Society

François Marie-Arouet was to create an exciting name to be remembered forever. He had carefully thought about revolter, voltiger, and finally Voltaire. The French philosopher with a great literary temper had always taken advantage of his liberal viewpoints to consistently attack Rousseau’s naturalist approach to life and society. Voltaire who had enjoyed a successful life with great style enjoying the courtesan love, while Rousseau contradictory attempted to express himself through the l’Émile, ou De l’éducation, but living otherwise.

My reading of Candide (ou L’Optimisme), one of the most beautiful philosophic novels I have ever read, coincided with my reading of Rousseau’s Dialogues et Rêveries d’un Promeneur Solitaire, possibly Rousseau’s most personal and biographical writing, where he confirms his naturist viewpoints and his love for nature. While Voltaire explored the novel and the theatre among others, Rousseau was more involved with social issues, as in the Social Contract, where he suggests that man is born free and pure but corrupted by society itself, and only freedom can be attained by being part of the so called “social contract”. Voltaire attacks Rousseau’s naturist viewpoints and shows his choleric (emotive, active, primary) character which often made him look slightly over-aggressive, satiric or consistently grotesque, and as usual a strong critic of society from any point of view. I got the chance to read quite a bit of Voltaire’s literary and philosophic work.

Candide’s perception of optimistic life reflected many of my viewpoints as a young man, in spite of my extensive reading of Nietzsche, and other philosophers like Sartre, which had completed my way to approach life beyond an ethical perspective, where my Catholic education was a key factor. This period of time was particularly useful to me to evaluate spiritual writing’s such as Hesse’s Glass Bead Game and Sidartha, which I used to accept my perception that Candide’s optimism required a certain level of spiritual elevation and like Dostoiewski put it “the pre-destined man”.

I read The Social Contract while I attended the law school, while I also attended the engineering school. My day usually started early in the morning around 5am, in order to arrive at my first 6:15am civil law class. On Wednesday, in particular, after a long day of engineering classes, and three other law classes, I would escape my constitutional law class to attend my French literature class at the Alliance Française, just a mile away from my law school. I enjoyed this itinerary of the French for several years. My French reading of Rousseau overlaps with my required reading of Montesquieu, and therefore the two together proposed a truthful philosophical view of the naturist philosopher in relation to the State.

Similarly, I believe that reconciling the two philosophers is beyond the reader’s perception to admired them, from both the literary and philosophical value. While Rousseau’s extraordinary social value is unique and can span both literary and philosophical worlds, Voltaire fits both as well. The idea of living by Candide’s standards in today’s world requires the perception that freedom is not attained by the social contract but it is rather a matter of understanding the world to overcome fear, and reach affinity and positive communication, which could easily be matched to a Nietzche’s will to power.