The Enlightenment lacked spontaneity and it was rather a result of the few individuals who viewed society through a lens that was not exclusively related to Christian teachings and greatly contributed to the development of reason. There a wide variety of philosophes who contributed to the debates on liberty; however, the French philosopher, Voltaire (née François Marie Arouet, 1694-1778), is among the most influential of the philosophes. As a member of the Moderate Enlightenment, Voltaire championed the freedom of expression, with some reasonable constraints, and stood in opposition to censorship. Voltaire articulated his progressive views through mediums such as letters, fictional literature, and political commentary. At the commencement
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In his article, “Torture,” Voltaire describes an account of brutal torture, where a young man was “convicted of having sung impious songs…[he was] ordered not only that his tongue should be torn out, that his hands should be torn off, and his body burned at a slow fire, but they further applied the torture…” Voltaire then provides the reader with a sense of reality and clarifies that “it was not in the thirteenth or fourteenth century that this affair happened; it was in the eighteenth.” Other writers shared similar views as Voltaire on torture, such as Cesare Beccaria in his Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764). Once Voltaire began to question corporal punishment, an increasing number of legal reformers began to question torture too. The criminal justice system was restructured, and torture was seen as futile and no longer a means for salvation. There was a new concern for the human body spreading across Europe. Voltaire undeniably impacted the development of liberal freedoms and human rights, of which would eventually be declared as “unalienable” in the American Declaration of Independence. The consciousness of these unalienable rights was further established by other philosophes in addition to Voltaire, but this outcome was not always
In his article, “Torture,” Voltaire describes an account of brutal torture, where a young man was “convicted of having sung impious songs…[he was] ordered not only that his tongue should be torn out, that his hands should be torn off, and his body burned at a slow fire, but they further applied the torture…” Voltaire then provides the reader with a sense of reality and clarifies that “it was not in the thirteenth or fourteenth century that this affair happened; it was in the eighteenth.” Other writers shared similar views as Voltaire on torture, such as Cesare Beccaria in his Essay on Crimes and Punishments (1764). Once Voltaire began to question corporal punishment, an increasing number of legal reformers began to question torture too. The criminal justice system was restructured, and torture was seen as futile and no longer a means for salvation. There was a new concern for the human body spreading across Europe. Voltaire undeniably impacted the development of liberal freedoms and human rights, of which would eventually be declared as “unalienable” in the American Declaration of Independence. The consciousness of these unalienable rights was further established by other philosophes in addition to Voltaire, but this outcome was not always