Contemporary likeness
Voltaire
1694 – 1778
PhilosophyLiteratureEnlightenment
The age's sharpest polemicist, twice imprisoned and repeatedly exiled for saying so.
Contemporary likeness. Based on the Houdon bust and Quentin de La Tour portrait, both from life.
Why they still matter
He made tolerance an argument rather than a sentiment, and used comedy to do the work that treatises could not.
The world they thought in
Campaigned publicly against judicial torture and religious persecution from his estate at Ferney.
The questions they worked on
Justice
What does a just arrangement of people look like?
Made tolerance an argument, not a sentiment.
Where the thinking travelled
Each link says what kind of link it is. A documented influence and a much later echo are not the same claim, and are never presented as one.
John LockeDocumented influence
Carried Locke and Newton into French debate.
One demonstrably read, studied under or answered the other.
Take this further
Ponderers is the historical layer. A rabbit hole brings the same question into what people are arguing about now.