Freedom of expression and the enlightenment

philosophes
themselves,” aptly seen in Louis XV’s “actively opposing” the 
philosophes
and their 
works.
70
Voltaire was walking a thin line. He supported the monarchy, but he still wanted 
an increase in freedom and toleration and believed that progress and the dissemination of 
information were being spread and accelerated because of printing and the increasing 
availability of books.
71
On the other hand, he did not want to anger those who could put a 
stop to the philosophes publishing and distributing their works. Therefore, he thought that 
the radicals who angered the officials were doing a disservice to their contemporaries by 
making it harder for everyone to publish. He was in favor of moderation because it 
enabled the great writers to continue spreading their ideas and pushing for gradual 
69
Israel, 
Enlightenment Contested
, 754.
70
Jonathan Israel, “
Libertas Philosophandi
in the Eighteenth Century: Radical Enlightenment versus 
Moderate Enlightenment (1750-1776),” in 
Freedom of Speech,
ed. Powers, 8.
71
Israel, 
Democratic Enlightenment
, 27.

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30 
change, but he still supported his more radical counterparts. For example, he was 
outraged over the French government’s response to and crackdown on the 
Encyclopedie
produced by the radical Diderot, and he was enthusiastic when Denmark-Norway became 
the first state to remove all censorship.
72
Voltaire was not only discussing works by others but was also writing prolifically 
himself. Not everything he wrote was on toleration, government, or religion, but these 
were frequent topics, even in his personal correspondence. For example, in a 1765 letter 
to Helvetius, he claimed that “however unrelenting the strife, freedom of thought and 
toleration would emerge victorious and be proclaimed indispensable to mankind.”
73
Even 
his poetry exhibited evidence of his views on toleration: his epic poem 
Henriade
made 
King Henry IV into a hero for the Edict of Nantes which attempted to establish religious 
tolerance. Nevertheless, three of his works stand out above the rest. These include his 
Philosophical Letters
or 
Letters Concerning the English Nation
, the 
Treatise on 
Tolerance
, and the 
Philosophical Dictionary
. All of these works demonstrate Voltaire’s 
commitment to tolerance and expanding freedom.
The 
Philosophical Letters
were published in French in 1734 and were quickly 
banned and burned as they were seen as an attack on the French government. In these 
letters, Voltaire examined the English nation from his view as an outsider. This work is 
based on his experience living in England while out of favor in France, and Voltaire was 
also a professed anglophile and Lockean (Voltaire even devotes a full letter to Locke and 
his ideas). According to Israel, Voltaire’s time in England “exerted a lasting influence on 
72
Ibid, 125.
73
Israel, “
Libertas Philosophandi
,” in 
Freedom of Speech
, ed. Powers, 11. 
73
Israel, 
Democratic Enlightenment
, 115.

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31 
his views about God, toleration, philosophy, and science” and “set in motion a process of 
philosophical maturing and development.”
74
Voltaire was such a fan of England because 
that country was “flourishing amid toleration, Latitudinarianism, and freedom of the 
press, and dominated by Lockean-Newtonian ides, while the latter [France] languished 
under censorship, relative intolerance, and reverence for outdated authorities and old 
quarrels,” a view which comes across when one reads the letters.
75
Voltaire starts his