Montesquieu
One of the leading political thinkers of the French Enlightenment, the Baron
de Montesquieu (1689–1755),
drew great influence from the works of Locke. Montesquieu’s most
critical work, The Spirit of Laws (1748),
tackled and elaborated on many of the ideas that Locke had introduced.
He stressed the importance of a separation of powers and was one
of the first proponents of the idea of a system of checks
and balances in government.
Although Montesquieu’s work had a great effect on the
development of democracy, Montesquieu himself believed
that no one governmental system better than the others but rather
that different forms were better than others in certain situations.
An early pioneer in sociology, he spent considerable
time collecting data from various world cultures, which led him
to the rather outlandish conclusion that climate is a major factor
in determining the best form of government for a given region. Montesquieu
believed that environmental conditions affect behavior and response
and thus concluded that governments located in different climates
should be adjusted accordingly. Even Montesquieu admitted that this
idea worked better in theory than in practice. His legacy therefore
lies primarily in his methods, his combination of practicality and
Enlightened idealism—ultimately, he was a researcher through and
through.
Voltaire
The primary satirist of the Enlightenment, François-Marie
Arouet, better known by his pen name Voltaire (1694–1778),
entered the literary world as a playwright. He quickly became renowned
for his wit and satire, as well as the libel claims that often resulted.
In and out of prison and other various predicaments for most of
his young life, Voltaire spent a period of exile in England during
which he was introduced to the works of Locke and Newton. The two
thinkers had a profound impact on the young Voltaire, who became
wildly prolific in the years that followed, authoring more than
sixty plays and novels and countless other letters and poems.
Voltaire was an avowed deist, believing in God but hating
organized religion. As a result, he made Christianity—which he called “glorified
superstition”—a frequent target of his wit. Voltaire was also an
ardent supporter of monarchy and spent a considerable amount of
time working toward judicial reform. Later, after bouncing around
to various countries and working with a number of notable contemporaries,
Voltaire wrote the satire Candide (1759), which
has since earned distinction as one of the most influential literary
works in history.
Although Voltaire lacked the practical breadth of some
of his contemporaries—he did not dabble in multiple scientific fields—he made
up for it with the volume of his work. Using his brilliant, sarcastic wit
to analyze everything from philosophy to politics to law, he extolled
the virtue of reason over superstition and intolerance and effectively
became the voice of the Enlightenment. Moreover, his satirical style
enabled him to make incredibly pointed criticisms while generally
avoiding serious prosecution by those he attacked. Although detractors
complain that Voltaire never offered any solutions to the problems
he criticized, he never aspired to do so. Nonetheless, by merely
pointing out problems and criticizing different philosophies, he
caused considerable change.
Diderot
The third major figure of the French Enlightenment was Denis Diderot (1713–1784),
a writer and philosopher best known for editing and assembling the
massive Encyclopédie, an attempt to
collect virtually all of human knowledge gathered in various fields
up to that point. Twenty-eight volumes in length—seventeen text, eleven
illustrated—the portion of the Encyclopédie edited
by Diderot was published one volume at a time from 1751 to 1772. Diderot,
assisted by French mathematician Jean Le Rond d’Alembert for
part of the project, painstakingly collected as much Enlightenment-era
knowledge as he possibly could. After Diderot’s involvement, an
additional seven volumes were completed, but Diderot himself did
not edit them.
