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Voltaire's Ideas Of The French Revolution

500 Words2 Pages

Voltaire 's ideas were special, but many people of France did not like Voltaire because he somewhat agreed with having a monarchy. However, Voltaire believed in equality which was extremely important for the French Revolution. Voltaire wanted individualism, which was one of the main things keeping him on good terms with the people. Though he also believed that the government would fail without a proper structure with a monarch. (Voltaire 11). If all the people in France had a lot of power, then the structure would be bad. Although other philosophers did not want an absolutist government and wanted the current one removed, these ideas from Voltaire helped accomplish a government with with structure and equality. (Voltaire 13). One that would …show more content…

Voltaire came to a belief in the possibility of a political democracy, however in a restrained version. (Arnold 67). Though when it comes to the question of political democracy, Voltaire demands here are mainly based on specific restraints to individual liberty when it comes to a particular system of justice. This is where the liberty of the individual is understood only in the sense that he is granted certain privileges. Louis XIV had turned France into becoming an extremely hierarchical society with the king at the top and then looking down on everyone else. (Harvey 473). He was really against the ideas that a person could be put into jail simply on the fact that the king wanted him there, without any evidence against them and without any opportunity of a fair trial. Voltaire was also against a government under which people in jail were forced to confess of possible false guilt due to unimaginable torture. (Voltaire 10). So what Voltaire wanted in the French Revolution was the abolishment of unlawful arrest, freedom from torture and unfair persecution. Voltaire also hated the fact that the first two estates were exempt from almost all forms of corruption and this to him was unjust to the extreme. (Harvey 475) Voltaire was a support of the king at heart but what he wanted was for a peaceful monarchy that served for the common good of the people, which was something that would never happen. Voltaire by helping the progression of the French Revolution, was able to aid the French in achieving a state which would recognize the freedom of individuals through established civil

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