Voltaire

Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet; 1694–1778), French author, philosopher, and major figure of the Enlightenment. An enemy of tyrants, he spent much of his life in exile, including 23 years at his property on the Swiss border. His Letters Concerning the English Nation (1733) extolled religious and political toleration and the ideas of Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke. The satire Candide (1759), a rational skeptic's attack on the optimism of Gottfried von Leibniz, shows Voltaire's astringent style at its best. A friend of Frederick II of Prussia, Voltaire contributed to Denis Diderot's Encyclopedia and wrote his own Philosophical Dictionary (1764).

See also: Age of Reason.