外國人最想和你聊的名人話題：伏爾泰

　About Voltaire　關(guān)于伏爾泰

     Francois-Marie Arouet, better known by the pen name Voltaire, was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade. Voltaire was a prolific writer, producing works in almost every literary form including plays, poetry, novels, essays, and historical and scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters and more than 2,000 books and pamphlets. He was an outspoken supporter of social reform, despite strict censorship laws and harsh penalties for those who broke them. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma and the French institutions of his day.
     Francois-Marie Arouet was born in Paris, the youngest of the five children (only three of whom survived) of Francois Arouet (1650-1722), a notary who was a minor treasury official, and his wife, Marie Marguerite d'Aumart (ca. 1660 - 13 July 1701), from a noble family of the province of Poitou. Voltaire was educated by Jesuits at the Collège Louis-le-Grand (1704-1711), where he learned Latin and Greek; later in life he became fluent in Italian, Spanish and English.
     From an early age, Voltaire displayed a talent for writing verse and his first published work was poetry. He wrote two book-long epic poems, including the first ever written in French, the Henriade, and later, The Maid of Orleans, besides many other smaller pieces.
     Voltaire was one of several Enlightenment figures (along with Montesquieu, John Locke, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and émilie du Chatelet) whose works and ideas influenced important thinkers of both the American and French Revolutions.
     伏爾泰不僅在哲學(xué)上有卓越成就，也以捍衛(wèi)公民自由，特別是信仰自由和司法公正而聞名。他曾兩次被捕入獄，主張開明的民主制度，強調(diào)自由和平等。盡管在他所處的時代審查制度十分嚴厲，伏爾泰仍然公開支持社會改革。他的論說以諷刺見長，常常抨擊基督教會的教條和當(dāng)時的法國教育制度。雨果曾評價說："伏爾泰的名字所代表的不是一個人，而是整整一個時代。"他提倡盧梭所倡導(dǎo)的天賦人權(quán)，認為人生來就是自由和平等的，一切人都具有追求生存、追求幸福的權(quán)利，這種權(quán)利是天賦予的，不能被剝奪，這就是天賦人權(quán)思想。
     伏爾泰信奉自然權(quán)利說，認為"人們本質(zhì)上是平等的"，要求人人享有"自然權(quán)利"。他主張人人在法律面前平等，但又認為財產(chǎn)權(quán)利的不平等是不可避免的。他把英國的君主立憲制理想化了，認為最理想的是由"開明"的君主按哲學(xué)家的意見來治理國家。伏爾泰在啟蒙運動的思想家中，反映上層資產(chǎn)階級的利益，主張開明君主制。他在哲學(xué)上信奉英國唯物主義哲學(xué)家洛克的經(jīng)驗論。在哲學(xué)上，他承認物質(zhì)世界的客觀存在，肯定認識來源于感覺經(jīng)驗，但他又認為神是宇宙的"第一推動者"。他對勞動人民是十分鄙視的，認為他們只能干粗活，不能思考，說"當(dāng)庶民都思考時，那一切都完了"。伏爾泰在反封建的啟蒙運動中作出的巨大的貢獻，是值得人們永遠紀念的。