HIS109Y1 Lecture Notes - Brilliant Mind, King Power, Montesquieu
Document Summary
Voltaire - satire & wit making fun of ancien regime ==> destructive. Didn"t offer anything in exchange for what he accused (i. e. didn"t offer a solution for every- thing he made fun of) 1st book: lettres paris (1721) -- written as persian traveller going through france. Used guise that he could say what he wanted without openly accusing the society. Realized europeans are euro-centric (look at world from small perspective) Pointed out all absurdities that voltaire did, but from point of view of an outsider . New genre: critiquing society through guise of an outsider. Spirit of the laws (1748) - dependent on locke"s treatise of gov"t. Dependent on how he saw how english constitution worked. Social view of how constitution worked -- no divine intervention in human affairs; let"s look at stuff that humans have control over. Humans have control over their lives on earth.
