The play of error and truth in Voltaire’s philosophical dialogues Stéphane Pujol

Abstract

Voltaire's writings seem to develop two oppositions : on one side, it aims at attacking the discourse of the systèmes and the cacophony produced by them, opposing to them prudence and humbleness ; on the other side, it wants to reestablish the right of the search for truth against the skeptical temptation. In Voltaire writings, the philosophical discourse rises from that tension, from the desire to say and the wish to be mute, a tension which is expressed by the dramatization of the dialogue. We shall investigate, thus, the place and nature of philosophy in the Dialogues.