Voltaire
1694–1778The Enlightenment
Voltaire fought fanaticism with wit: Candide against optimism, a Treatise on Tolerance for Jean Calas, a Dictionary reading scripture as history.
6 works · 3,737 passages grounded
The collection
The Philosophers
Every thinker here answers out of their own texts. Choose a voice and put your question to it.
- Philosophers
- 148
- Works
- 843
- Passages
- 298k+
- Centuries spanned
- 26
When the thinkers were born — philosophers per century
| Century | Philosophers born |
|---|---|
| 7th c. BCE | 3 |
| 6th c. BCE | 3 |
| 5th c. BCE | 2 |
| 4th c. BCE | 2 |
| 3rd c. BCE | 3 |
| 2nd c. BCE | 4 |
| 1st c. BCE | 4 |
| 1st c. CE | 4 |
| 2nd c. CE | 4 |
| 3rd c. CE | 1 |
| 4th c. CE | 5 |
| 5th c. CE | 6 |
| 6th c. CE | 1 |
| 7th c. CE | 4 |
| 8th c. CE | 1 |
| 9th c. CE | 4 |
| 10th c. CE | 4 |
| 11th c. CE | 10 |
| 12th c. CE | 4 |
| 13th c. CE | 5 |
| 14th c. CE | 3 |
| 15th c. CE | 3 |
| 16th c. CE | 9 |
| 17th c. CE | 9 |
| 18th c. CE | 21 |
| 19th c. CE | 29 |
Which traditions they come from — philosophers per tradition
- The Western tradition 87
- The Indian tradition 29
- The Chinese tradition 15
- The Japanese tradition 6
- The Jewish tradition 6
- The Islamic and Persian tradition 5
| Tradition | Philosophers | Share |
|---|---|---|
| The Western tradition | 87 | 59% |
| The Indian tradition | 29 | 20% |
| The Chinese tradition | 15 | 10% |
| The Japanese tradition | 6 | 4% |
| The Jewish tradition | 6 | 4% |
| The Islamic and Persian tradition | 5 | 3% |
What the corpus argues about — share of the canon per question
| Question | Share of the canon |
|---|---|
| Mind and knowledge | 11.5% |
| Metaphysics and the cosmos | 10% |
| Politics and power | 9.5% |
| Ethics and the good life | 7.8% |
| Logic and language | 4.4% |
| Being and existence | 4.1% |
16 philosophers match
By year of birth
17th c. CE
1 in the arena
18th c. CE
15 in the arena
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Émilie du Châtelet
1706–1749The Enlightenment
Émilie du Châtelet translated Newton, sided with Leibniz on force, argued that fire weighs nothing, and ranked the love of study above every passion.
3 works · 208 passages grounded
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Thomas Reid
1710–1796The Enlightenment
Thomas Reid answered Hume's skepticism by rejecting the theory of ideas: we perceive things, not images, and common sense grounds all reasoning.
5 works · 1,895 passages grounded
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David Hume
1711–1776The Enlightenment
David Hume traced knowledge, causality, and morality to experience, habit, and sentiment—an introduction to his empiricism and skepticism.
7 works · 1,880 passages grounded
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Jean-Jacques Rousseau
1712–1778The Enlightenment
Jean-Jacques Rousseau linked child development to freedom and asked how political authority could be legitimate.
4 works · 1,902 passages grounded
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Denis Diderot
1713–1784The Enlightenment
Denis Diderot tested morality, religion, and social authority against nature and skepticism, from Philosophical Thoughts to Rameau's Nephew.
5 works · 355 passages grounded
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Adam Smith
1723–1790The Enlightenment
Adam Smith linked sympathy and moral judgment to a critique of monopoly, taxation, and mercantilism in The Wealth of Nations and his other works.
4 works · 2,609 passages grounded
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Baron d'Holbach
1723–1789The Enlightenment
Baron d'Holbach attacked religious superstition and defended a materialist, deterministic account of nature, morality, and human life.
5 works · 1,972 passages grounded
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Immanuel Kant
1724–1804The Enlightenment
Immanuel Kant asked how the mind makes experience possible—and where reason must stop, from knowledge and morality to art and politics.
17 works · 5,638 passages grounded
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Moses Mendelssohn
1729–1786The Enlightenment
Moses Mendelssohn defended the immortality of the soul and religious liberty in Enlightenment Germany.
3 works · 441 passages grounded
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Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
1729–1781The Enlightenment
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing argued that history cannot prove a faith and that tragedy trains pity. His thought on truth, religion, theatre and the arts.
12 works · 1,766 passages grounded
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Edmund Burke
1729–1797The Enlightenment
Edmund Burke defended constitutional tradition, attacked corruption, and opposed the French Revolution through speeches and political writings.
36 works · 4,470 passages grounded
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Thomas Paine
1737–1809The Enlightenment
Thomas Paine, whose Common Sense urged American independence, held that no one inherits authority, answered Burke in Rights of Man and rejected revelation.
10 works · 1,144 passages grounded
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Jeremy Bentham
1748–1832The Enlightenment
Jeremy Bentham made utility a test for law, punishment, and government—an introduction to his philosophy and programme of legal reform.
27 works · 6,591 passages grounded
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Mary Wollstonecraft
1759–1797The Enlightenment
Mary Wollstonecraft argued that women’s independence required education, reason, and moral agency—not obedience to custom.
5 works · 962 passages grounded
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Publius
1787–1788The Enlightenment
Publius, the pen name shared by Hamilton, Madison and Jay, argued in The Federalist that strong national government is liberty's protection, not its enemy.
1 work · 712 passages grounded