Voltaire

Voltaire appears in the introduction as a prominent eighteenth-century writer and a representative of the era’s practice of political generalization. He also enters the account as a pointed reader of Jean-Jacques Rousseau: in response to Rousseau’s second Discourse, he called it his “second book against the human race.” Together, these references place Voltaire at the intersection of literary controversy and the political limits on public criticism.

A Representative of Eighteenth-Century Generalization

In the introduction’s account, Voltaire exemplifies a climate in which intellectuals could often criticize power safely so long as they spoke in broad abstractions rather than naming particular abuses. The governments of the period tended to regard philosophy as politically impotent when its arguments remained general; Voltaire is identified as the typical example of a writer working within that latitude.

The contrast with Rousseau is significant. Rousseau, too, used the period’s generalizing method, but his abstractions carried such evident political implications that readers connected them to the governments of his day. The introduction thus distinguishes Voltaire’s representative role from Rousseau’s more dangerous effect: Rousseau’s general claims seemed to disclose particular applications between the lines, making even philosophical argument appear subversive.

Voltaire’s Response to Rousseau

In 1755, Rousseau published the Discourse on the Origin and Foundation of Inequality among Men, after unsuccessfully competing for a second prize offered by the Academy of Dijon in 1753. He prefaced the essay with a long dedication to the Republic of Geneva. Voltaire’s response is recorded through his letter thanking Rousseau for a presentation copy, in which he described the work as his “second book against the human race.”

The remark captures the opposition Voltaire perceived in the essay, whose broad contrast between the state of nature and society remains central even as Rousseau develops a more considered argument. The introduction stresses that Rousseau no longer merely presses one idea to an extreme: he gives nature a positive content, offers a reasoned account of his position, and acknowledges that something may be said on the other side. Voltaire’s sharp description registers the polemical force of the work, while the introduction’s account also makes clear how much more complex its argument had become.

Place in the Introduction’s History of Rousseau

Voltaire’s brief appearance serves two distinct purposes. As a representative of eighteenth-century generalization, he helps explain the intellectual conditions under which Rousseau wrote. As the recipient of Rousseau’s book, he provides a contemporary response that frames the Discourse as an attack on humanity, underscoring the controversy surrounding its diagnosis of social life.

The introduction does not develop Voltaire’s broader thought or give his response a further outcome. Instead, it uses his example and his remark to illuminate Rousseau’s historical position: Rousseau inherited the era’s abstract mode of criticism but gave it a concrete political charge, while his second Discourse marked a development beyond the simpler oppositions of his earlier argument.