Customer Reviews

Voltaire: The Great Philosophers (The Great Philosophers Series)

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I bought this slim 53 page volume hoping to get a little background on Voltaire's life, work, and philosophy. But for a book so obviously intended as an introduction to Voltaire, Gray's book instead is a scathing criticism, using basic introductory level information on Voltaire and the Enlightenment era as examples to make his argument. His conclusion- that "Voltaire's 'philosophy' has little to teach us," and that his work was heavily flawed and derivative in its time, and too "difficult" and "irrelevant for the modern reader." If this is true, then why was the book commisionned, and why am I reading it? The book is neither a suitable introduction to Voltaire, or a scholarly work of any noticeable merit, since the author never goes even remotely in depth enough to explain his positions. I can't believe this was written by a college professor. What was he on? For a better introduction to Voltaire, read his novella Candide, an excellent and hilarious little novel that raises questions that perhaps Gray would prefer to avoid.

John Gray is no fan of Voltaire or the Enlightenment. After reading Will Durant's '' The Story of Philosophy '' I was anxious to learn more about Voltaire. According to Gray he was not politically correct or multicultural enough to get our modern stamp of approval. So far I have read several of the ''Great Philosophers Series'' and all have been poorly written or boring. I will not purchase any more. The story of philosophy is actually very exciting.

Having read several of the other reviews posted here on John Gray's book, "Voltaire", it is hard to find words that would enhance the chorus of denigration. This is quiet literally a "dumb" book, meaning any who read this will be struck dumb by it's intellectual vacuousness. My only additional comment would be that the editor(s) of this series failed miserably. By allowing this book to be published under the guise of representing a critical appraisal of a philospher, something the Great Philosophers series purports to be, ( I am referring, of course, to "critical" as in objective, not negative), they have called the whole series into question and cheapened the discussion of philosophy in general.

I read this book this morning and I found it very poor. He tells what Voltaire was thinking and ideas and concepts that he says Voltaire would not be able to understand or ever express, yet gives no clear examples to back up any of it. No one is expecting a chapter of examples, but at least give me ONE!

I hated this book. Gray lists all of Voltaire's faults and concentrates on the negative. His over-reliance on Nietzsche and his inclusion of de Sade(!) swayed me to the view that Gray does not understand the Enlightenment or the Philosophes in a thorough way. Potshots like "Nearly everything Voltaire wrote is unreadable today" made me angry. It's just nasty and not particularly valuable as a criticism since there are very few authors from that period that are still readable. Plus, someone once noted that Voltaire is not essential reading today because he WON. All the things he fought for are taken for granted today, essentially because he triumphed. Voltaire was the first soldier in the war for reason and he should be treated better than this. Gray just better be glad he's dead, because he would take him apart for this shabby piece of journalism.

Alas, there are not few enough stars to rate this book fairly. It is a vacuous, bad joke. Who picked this small-minded and petty professor to write about a 'great one' in the history of human world changers? Gray sounds like one of those 'shallow, artificial and superficial 'professors' of knowledge who, 'like the gnats who ride in the race, only barely hanging on to the neck of the thoroughbred - and then criticize the way the the race was won'. Everyone involved in this sham-of-a-book should be ashamed - the author is clue-less as to the greatness and genius of Voltaire, and takes cheap and uninformed pot-shots at Voltaire. He pecks away from his little, isolated Ivory Tower - at one of the great thinkers/liberators in Western Civilization, at Voltaire, no less, who writes from the Bastille, and uses his wits to enlighten Europe and escape the Inquisition and the corrupt aristocarcracies who hounded him throughout his 70+ years of heoric satire. As they say..."When a pickpocket sees a saint - all he sees are the pockets" Don't waste your time or money, and please, do not support this publication. It's a disgrace and a diservice to a great soul who made it possible for trash like this to be published.

This book has nothing to do with Voltaire, it is about the author's belief that the enlightenmant is a failed project. He also unforunately seems not to understand the definition of faith, as he routinely makes the error that one finds everywhere in the politically correct west, that science is just a form of faith itself. The author should read Sam Harris' The End of Faith and should refrain from writing books in the meantime! cheers.