Voltaire · Philosophy

Dare to Think for Yourself

Voltaire as the emblem of free thought and free expression - the case that the right to think and speak is the root of every other liberty, why he became its symbol, and the honest correction that his most famous ‘quotation’ on the subject was written by someone else.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Voltaire made the liberty to think and publish central to the Enlightenment, dramatized it in the ‘Liberty of Thought’ dialogue (‘dare to think for yourself’), and that the celebrated ‘I disapprove of what you say but will defend to the death your right to say it’ i…

Leads to Jean-Jacques Rousseau.

epoché — a humanities education that remembers you.