A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 05
⚠️ Content warning
- Language:
- English
- Translation:
- William F. Fleming
- Status:
- Selection or partial work
- Authorship:
- Written by the author
- Condition of the text:
- Clean text
- Extent:
- ~88,800 words · 422 passages
Cite this work
- APAVoltaire. (n.d.). A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 05. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/a-philosophical-dictionary-volume-05
- MLAVoltaire. "A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 05." SigPhi, https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/a-philosophical-dictionary-volume-05.
- ChicagoVoltaire. A Philosophical Dictionary, Volume 05. SigPhi. https://sigphiai.com/en/works/voltaire/a-philosophical-dictionary-volume-05.
What it is about
Volume 5 of ten of the Philosophical Dictionary. David – Fanaticism. The volume with the article on fanaticism, which is the core of all Voltaire.
Context and history
The form is the argument: a dictionary is consulted rather than read through, which made it impossible to refute as a whole and easy to circulate underground. Voltaire published it anonymously in 1764 and it was burned in Geneva and in Paris. A note on the edition: the catalogue holds TWO editions of the Philosophical Dictionary — this one in ten volumes and a single-volume Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary. They are not a duplicate: they are different selections and translations, and the articles do not correspond one to one. The original is French.
Editorial context, not a citable source: unlike the passages of the work itself, these statements cannot be checked against the corpus.
One hundred and sixty-eight designs, comprising reproductions of rare old engravings, steel plates, photogravures, and curious fac-similes VOLUME IX E.R. DuMONT PARIS--LONDON--NEW YORK--CHICAGO _The WORKS of VOLTAIRE_ _"Between two servants of Humanity, who appeared eighteen hundred years apart, there is a mysterious relation. * * * * Let us say it with a sentiment of profound respect: JESUS WEPT: VOLTAIRE SMILED. Of that divine tear and of that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization."_ _VICTOR HUGO._ LIST OF PLATES--VOL. V SANS SOUCI _Frontispiece_ A LAND STORM THE TEMPTATION OF ADAM DESCARTES * * * * * A PHILOSOPHICAL DICTIONARY. IN TEN VOLUMES Vol. V FANATICISM--GREGORY VII * * * * * FANATICISM. SECTION I. Fanaticism is the effect of a false conscience, which makes religion subservient to the caprices of the imagination, and the excesses of the passions. It arises, in general, from legislators entertaining too narrow views, or from their extending their regulations beyond the limits within which alone they were intended to operate. Their laws are made merely for a select society. When extended by zeal to a whole people, and transferred by ambition from one climate to another, some changes of institution should take place, some accommodation to persons, places, and circumstances. But what, in fact, has been the case? Certain minds, constituted in a great degree like those of the small origin