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EN
The article deals with intertextual relationships of the xviiith century tragedy : these relationships are particularly rich, because the contemporary dramatist partly seeks a theme in the works of ancient authors, and he partly uses contemporary drama procedures and he separates himself from dramas/plays with the same subject. The characteristic feature of processing of the play of the same idea is transmotivation and revaluation, which functioning is supported by author’s analysis of Voltaire’s tragedy “Rome sauvée ou Catilina”, taking into account Voltaire’s rivals plays — Catiline by Ben-Johnson and especially Catilina by Crébillon. Just the confrontation of these plays allows defining principles of Voltaire’s dramaturgy : the structural role of love in motivating acts and the moral elevation of the hero, who has to be an example.
EN
Voltaire composed his Memoirs of the Life of Monsieur de Voltaire: Written by Himself at approximately the same time as his novel Candide, or Optimism published in 1759. For this reason, these Memoirs occupy a central place in the philosopher’s work. Combining ironic comment on the important historic events and salacious gossip of the world, they trace very briefly 25 years of Voltaire’s life. The author of this paper tries to analyse the relationship between the memorialist’s style, strongly coloured with the grotesque, and his vision of history. Next, he juxtaposes the Memoirs with Voltaire’s historical works. Finally, he demonstrates the close affinity between their non-linear representations of history, despite differences in their style.
FR
La rédaction des Mémoires de Voltaire est à peu près contemporaine de celle de Candide ou l’Optimisme, conte philosophique paru en 1759. De ce fait, les Mémoires occupent une place centrale dans l’œuvre de l’écrivain. Composés d’une suite d’anecdotes et d’événements d’apparence triviale, ils retracent sur quelques dizaines de pages vingt-cinq années de la vie de celui qui, installé depuis 1755 à Genève, avait côtoyé les principaux acteurs du siècle des Lumières. En étudiant les procédés littéraires mis en œuvre par le mémorialiste, l’auteur de l’article cherche à établir le lien entre ces derniers et la représentation de l’histoire. Ensuite, il compare cette représentation avec celle, non-linéaire, qui apparaît dans l’œuvre historique de l’écrivain. Finalement, il démontre leurs similitudes malgré la différence des moyens stylistiques employés par le Voltaire historien et le Voltaire mémorialiste qui recourt constamment au grotesque.
EN
The article discusses the transformations of the idea of park in modernity. In the Age of Enlightenment Europe replaced the white of medieval cathedrals with the green of parks. A man, like Candide from Voltaire’s satire, started to “cultivate his garden,” changing private parks in public spaces. As a consequence of that process the idea of park as a place where you could experience beauty and pleasure completely “vanished”. Urban green spaces started to be determined by an efficacy parameter – which can be witnessed in Le Corbusier’s or Ebenezer Howard’s projects – thus opening the way for transforming former landscape parks into modern places of consumption: commercial parks and amusement parks.
CLEaR
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2016
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vol. 3
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issue 2
32-39
EN
Voltaire produced his works within the literary-historical period of Classicism and Enlightenment, in which the prevalent role of literature was educational. The period also dictated what genre, theme, style and structure authors should follow. However, more and more changes of literary genres appear, and the process of stratification of literature into high and trivial takes place. The aim of this paper is to describe the polarization of two mutually different processes involved in the literary shaping of Voltaire's philosophical narrative Candide or Optimism. In Voltaire's narrative, the popularization of philosophy, in order to simplify and illuminate the philosophical writings of G. W. Leibniz, results in the changes of style and content that become understandable to the general readership since they work within the scheme of an adventure novel. In this process, trivialization does not affect only the genre, but is also present in other parts of literary analysis and interpretation such as the theme, motifs, structure, characterization, narrative techniques, stylistic features, and so on.
EN
This article deals with the ways Voltaire makes references in his texts to the philosophical thought of Leibniz. To achieve maximum coherence, this paper only discusses those writings by Voltaire that most directly refer to the Leibnizian issues. These are primarily Poem on the Lisbon Disaster and the philosophical tale Candide, or Optimism. The article critically examines various aspects of Leibniz’s philosophy, such as the theory of pre-established harmony and the concept of monads, and above all the notion of the best possible universe. Moreover, selected aspects of Voltaire’s and Leibniz’s thoughts are compared. For the purpose of consistent analysis, the article primarily focuses on those features in the German philosopher’s system that were particularly questioned by the author of Candide.
EN
The article explores the issue of the Polish reception of Voltaire’s poem La Pucelle, a satire on the rule of Louis XV, set in the Hundred Years’ War realities. The author presents contemporary reactions to the poem read in the second half of the 18th century in its original version, the fate of the Polish translation, which Adam Mickiewicz worked on as a student, and consternation of researchers examining the poet’s life and works when they discovered a fragment of this translation in the Philomath Archive.
PL
The author presents the basic premises of Voltaire’s philosophy of religion, based on a recreationof its historical and philosophical context, as well as an analysis of source texts.This includes: the declared elitism of Voltaire and les philosophes, referring to the “brilliant”philosophical and scientific mind; their affirmation of the necessity to separate eliteand common knowledge; and their conviction that religious faith (religious fanaticism)is obviously the source of all evil in the world. Such a discursive field renders the disputebetween deists and atheists insignificant, as both deism and atheism are included as formsof “philosophical religion”, that is, two forms of religious knowledge meriting popularization.Elite philosophical knowledge considers deism to be safer than atheism, nonethelessregarding the “brilliant” human mind as the proper object of worship in the so-called“religion of les philosophes”. One of the dogmas in this “religion” is a ruthless, albeit bloodless,war on evil.
EN
The aim of the essay is to demonstrate that John Maxwell Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K can be perceived as a parody of Voltaire’s Candide, a novel intended as a ridicule of Leibniz’s Theodicy. While Voltaire proposed to withdraw from the world and ‘‘to cultivate one’s own garden” as a remedy to Leibniz’s ill-conceived optimism, Coetzee shows that Voltaire’s praise of passivity and life in accordance with nature, symbolized by a retreat into gardening, is as erratic as Leibniz’s philosophy. The essay concludes that Coetzee’s Michael K can be treated as a caricature of Voltaire’s Candide.
EN
The article is devoted to the problem of comprehension of the idea of miracle by the encyclopaedists and other enlighteners. The definitions of the concepts we use to designate the miraculous, the amazing and the magic change with the time. This fact may seem trivial at first glance. However, if we draw our sight to the material world we will see that the evolutionary changes taking place with some engineering devices do not affect the functions these devices were invented for. Entirely different is the situation with the semantics of some words denoting abstract concepts. The core function of the word is to convey a certain sense to the addressee. But, as may be seen from the speculations of the miraculous, it is the sense of the word which is gradually changing. The changes mentioned are due to the collisions between different world views at the turn of the epochs. However, the stereotype ideas of the Enlightenment as the period of fighting religious doctrines by means of applying to the reason as the only criterion of the truth, cannot be used to describe the processes in question. Our analysis will also point out at the problem of the periodization of the Age of Enlightenment.
EN
This paper traces the history of the philosophical and political justification of religious tolerance from the late 17th century to modern times. In the Anglo-Saxon world, John Locke’s Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) gave birth to the doctrine of the separation of Church and State and to what is now called secularization. In France, Pierre Bayle refuted, in his Philosophical Commentary (1685), the justification of intolerance taken from Saint Augustine. Following him, Voltaire campaigned for tolerance following the Calas affair (1763), and the Declaration of the Rights of Man (1789) imposed religious freedom which, a century later, resulted in the uniquely French notion of laïcité, which denies religion any supremacy, and any right to organize life in its name. Equality before the law takes precedence over freedom: the fact of being a believer does not give rise to the right to special statutes or to exceptions to the law.
EN
The article is a reflection on the dictionary as an ideological battleground illustrated with the example of thematic dictionaries or encyclopedias of the Age of Enlightenment. The perspective of the study is philosophical and religious, centred on the ideas of natural and universal religion as elements of conflicting worldviews. We will discuss the controversy surrounding the Philosophical Dictionary by Voltaire, who was attacked by Catholic clergymen such as Chaudon, Paulian, François or Nonnotte.
Pamiętnik Literacki
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2020
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vol. 111
|
issue 1
217-228
PL
W książce Leona Koźmińskiego „Voltaire finansista” (2019) Voltaire został przedstawiony od strony mało znanej. Nie jako filozof czy poeta, ale jako biznesmen. Autor rozważa, w jakich aspektach jego działalność jako przedsiębiorcy może zainteresować badaczy uprawiających socjologię historyczną. Zwraca uwagę na łączenie ról społecznych przedsiębiorcy oraz filozofa, uwikłanie przedsiębiorcy w ówczesny establishment polityczny, różnice społecznego i ekonomicznego krajobrazu miast takich jak Londyn, Amsterdam, Paryż i miasta położone nad środkową Wisłą. Ciekawa jest niemożność zajmowania się pieniędzmi oraz inwestowaniem w wypadku szlachty polskiej zestawiona z aktywnością Voltaire’a. W Polsce tych czasów szlachcic mógł się zajmować gospodarowaniem na roli lub wojaczką, podczas gdy aktywność związaną z obrotem pieniężnym przerzucano na Żydów – co miało wielorakie i długotrwałe konsekwencje. Ważna z punktu widzenia socjologii historycznej jest kwestia siły oddziaływania centralnej władzy państwa na aktywność ekonomiczną poszczególnych osób. Także – sposoby, jakimi owa władza przekazywała komunikaty poddanym, a w tym przedsiębiorcom. Autora interesuje, jakie formy działania uważano za akceptowalne w decyzjach ekonomicznych. Ciekawy jest obraz nowoczesnego – według kryteriów owego czasu – gospodarstwa rolnego, zarysowany przez Voltaire’a. Osobną sprawą, interesującą historyka pracującego na pograniczu socjologii, jest wykorzystanie korespondencji Voltaire’a w rozpatrywanym opracowaniu. Ponieważ, co oczywiste, dla dawnych czasów nie dysponujemy badaniami opinii publicznej, czerpanie informacji z korespondencji bywa wyjątkowo korzystne mimo wszystkich trudności, jakie przedstawia badanie takiego źródła.
EN
In Leon Koźmiński’s book “Voltaire finansista” (“Voltaire the Financier),” Voltaire is presented from an unknown side—not as a philosopher or a poet, but as a businessman. The author of the paper considers the possible aspects of Voltaire’s entrepreneurship that may raise interest of historical sociology scholars. He also pays attention to the merging of the social roles of the entrepreneur and the philosopher, and Voltaire’s mingling into the then political establishment, to the differences between the social and economical landscape of such cities as London, Amsterdam, or Paris, and those of the central Vistula. Impossibility of dealing with money or investments of the Polish nobility contrasted to Voltaire’s activity proves interesting. In Poland at that time a nobleman was to manage a farm or serve the army, while financial activity was given to the Jews, which brought about multiple and long-lasting consequences. From the point of view of historical sociology, it is vital to discern the crucial influence of the state’s central power on the economic activity of the individuals, as well as the ways the then power transferred message to its people, including the entrepreneurs. The author is interested in the forms of activity that were seen as acceptable when making economical decisions. The image of the modern, according to the criteria of its time, farmstead sketched by Voltaire is worthy of attention. A separate issue, also of interest to the historian researching the sociological borderline, is the use of Voltaire’s correspondence in the analysed study. As it is obvious that we lack social opinion material of the old days, employing pieces of information from letters is especially advantageous in spite of the many difficulties that this source poses to its readers.
EN
The article takes as a starting point the well-known hesitations of and even disagreements among critics regarding the classification of Voltaire’s works. The category of historical novel helps here to foster a discussion about genres by positing Voltaire’s case as one that is both exemplary and problematic. His case is therefore related to and underlined by the recently renewed interest in questions regarding the historical novel as well as the links between literature and history in general. In this respect, the highly heuristic quality of Voltaire’s works can all the more help us to explore new paths in both fields.
PL
Treści wczesnych prac Libeskinda, w tym zwłaszcza idee zawarte w cyklach rysunków pod nazwą Micromegas: The Architecture of End Space (1979) i Chamber Works: Architectural Meditations on the Themes from Heraclitus (1983) oraz trzy maszyny określone jako Three Lessons in Architecture (1985) w decydujący sposób wpłynęły na wszystkie późniejsze realizacje architekta. Prace te w dużym zakresie zmieniły zasady oddzielania teorii od praktyki budowlanej, w tym także odgraniczania architektury od literatury czy filozofii. Już Micromegas były polemiką z traktowaniem rysunku architektonicznego wyłącznie jako utylitarnego narzędzia w procesie stwarzania budowli i postawiły na uczynienie z tej techniki pełnoprawnej postaci realnej architektury. Chamber Works w jeszcze większym stopniu niż prace z serii Micromegas akcentowały samodzielność rysunku i jego odrębność od wszelkiej rzeczywistości czy zewnętrznych źródeł treści. Maszyny połączone w Three Lessons in Architecture streszczały dokonania dawnych epok historii sztuki budowania. Reading Machine opowiadała o rzemieślniczych początkach, Memory Machine o intelektualizmie okresu nowożytnego, Writing Machine zaś o współczesnym okresie mechanizacji pamięci i kreacji. Zadaniem maszyn była metafizyczna refleksja nad głównymi założeniami i mitami architektury, a zarazem przeniesienie tej refleksji na poziom doświadczenia zmysłowego. W berlińskim Jüdisches Museum wymyślone liternictwo architektoniczne połączyło się z narracją na temat zagłady żydowskich mieszkańców miasta. Libeskind wykreował nie tyle budowlę, ile literacką relację o zbrodni przełamującej historię ludzkości.
EN
The aim of the paper is to argue that the scene of the poet’s “duel” with the Kalmyk woman he met (not included in the final text of Pushkin’s “A Journey to Arzrum”) most likely has a literary basis rather than being based on reality. The claim is substantiated by an analysis of the texts that reflect the “Kalmyk” episode of Pushkin’s Arzrum journey (“Caucasian Diary”, 1828; “To a Kalmyk Maiden”, 1829), as well as biographical data on the corresponding period. A number of details about the encounter raise doubt as to its “authenticity”, in particular, the climax - a blow with a dombra on the head of a traveler who has tried to kiss the “Circe of the steppe”. Such an encounter between a stranger and a beauty, culminating in the lady-killer receiving an unexpected and often humiliating rebuff, had been a subject depicted by such eminent writers as Voltaire (the poem The Maid of Orleans, 1762) and Shakespeare (The Taming of the Shrew, 1590–1592). From the late 1810s to 1830, Pushkin himself repeatedly presented such “duels” (in the poems Ruslan and Lyudmila and “Count Nulin”, in his “Caucasian Diary” and the story “The Lady Rustic”). A connection of particular interest is that with Cinq-Mars ou Une conjuration sous Louis XIII by Alfred de Vigny (1826), mentioned in the epistle “To a Kalmyk Maiden”. This novel, mediocre but once very successful, contains a pivotal episode in which the title character punishes an “unjust judge” by hitting him on the head with a red-hot crucifix. A number of inconsistencies, however, turn the scene into a farce against the author’s intention. In “To a Kalmyk Maiden”, de Vigny is contrasted with Shakespeare, who consciously sought a comic effect by having Katherine break a lute on the head of an unwelcome teacher. In Pushkin’s text the scene in the kibitka contains a number of unmistakable references to The Taming of the Shrew. Furthermore, the use of biographical data allows the author of the paper to identify a number of semantic nuances in the epistle “To a Kalmyk Maiden” that have not been noticed earlier by researchers.
RU
Анализ aрзрумского путешествия А. С. Пушкина (Кавказский дневник, 1828, Калмычке, 1829), а также биографических данных соответствующего периода позволяет сделать вывод о том, что не вошедшая в окончательный текст Путешествия в Арзрум сцена «поединка» поэта с встреченной им калмычкой скорее всего имеет не реальную, а литературную ос- нову. Сомнение вызывает ряд деталей описанной встречи, в частности, кульминационный момент – удар домброй по голове путешественника, попытавшегося поцеловать «степную Цирцею». Поединок между незнакомцем и красавицей, в финале которого охотник до жен- ских прелестей получает неожиданный и зачастую унизительный отпор, становился пред- метом изображения таких художников слова, как Вольтер (поэма Орлеанская девственница, 1762) и У. Шекспир (комедия Укрощение строптивой, 1590–1592). С конца 1810-х до 1830 г. Пушкин не раз изображал такого рода «дуэли» (поэмы Руслан и Людмила и Граф Нулин, Кав- казский дневник, повесть Барышня-крестьянка). Особый интерес вызывает упоминаемый в послании Калмычке посредственный, но снискавший шумный успех роман А. де Виньи Сен-Мар, или Заговор времён Людовика XIII (1826), в сюжетосложении которого исключительно важную роль играет эпизод наказания заглавным героем «неправедного судьи» ударом по голове раскаленным распятием. Масса не- сообразностей, однако, превращают сцену в фарс вопреки воле автора. В послании Калмычке А. де Виньи (со)противопоставлен Шекспиру, осознанно добивавшемуся комического эф- фекта, рассказывая, как Катарина разбила лютню, надев ее на голову непрошенного учителя. Сцена, разыгравшаяся в кибитке, содержит ряд несомненных перекличек с Укрощени- ем строптивой Шекспира. Привлечение биографических данных позволило выявить в послании Калмычке ряд смысловых нюансов, не замеченных ранее исследователями.
PL
W bodaj najbardziej znanej książce Teresy Kostkiewiczowej „Klasycyzm, sentymentalizm, rokoko”, dramatopisarstwo stanowi niewielką część przykładów, które ilustrują kształtowanie się i jakościowe zmiany funkcjonowania polskiej literatury w dobie oświecenia, spojrzenie teatrologiczne zaś, czyli los przedstawień klasycznych, sentymentalnych bądź rokokowych na scenie nie jest celem badaczki. Dlatego autor artykułu proponuje zwrócić uwagę na trzech dramatopisarzy, których sztuki, z jednej strony, były grane dla polskiej publiczności w teatrze stołecznym i na prowincji, a z drugiej – ich twórcy są do dzisiaj uznawani za reprezentantów trzech głównych, XVIII-wiecznych prądów literacko-artystycznych. Pozwala to na postawienie kilku nowych akcentów w rozważaniach na temat użyteczności pojęć, które stosujemy, klasyfikując ówczesną twórczość teatralną.
EN
In Teresa Kostkiewiczowa’s probably most recognised book “Klasycyzm, sentymentalizm, rokoko” (“Classicism, Sentimentalism, Rococo”) playwriting is illustrated by a small number of examples that picture the shaping and qualitative changes in the functioning of the Polish Enlightened literature, while a theatrological view, namely the fortune of the classical, sentimental or rococo performances, is not the purpose. As a result, the author of the article attempts to pay attention to the playwriters whose pieces, on the one hand, were staged for Polish audience in capital theatre and in the province, and, on the other hand, to the playwriters themselves who until this day are seen as the representatives of the three main 18th c. literary-artistic trends. Such an approach allows to place new accents in the considerations about the usability of the terms that we employ when classifying the then theatrical production.
EN
A sudden death: Russians about the Great Lisbon Earthquake in 1755 The article presents three groups of texts about the earthquakes and the Great Lisbon Earthquake in 1755, published in Russia in the Enlightenment: 1. the articles from the journal “Sankt-Petersburgskie vedomosti” (1755), 2. the scientific and popular science articles about the earthquakes (Mikhail Lomonosov, 1757 etc.), 3. the works concerning the Poem on the Lisbon Disaster by Voltaire and the J.J. Rousseau’s letter about it (translation of Poem on the Lisbon Dis­aster by Ippolit Bogdanovich, 1763; translation of the Rousseau’s letter and the Johann Gottfried Reichel’s commentary in the periodical “Sobranie luchshih sochinenii”, 1762; the treatise of Vasily Levshin (Lyovshin), 1780, published in 1788, etc.). The article treats also on the problem of theo­dicy (Essays of Theodicy on the Goodness of God, the Freedom of Man and the Origin of Evil by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz).
RU
Скоропостижная смерть. Русские о землетрясении в Лиссабоне 1755 года В статье анализируются три группы сочинений представителей русского Просвеще­ния, описывающих землетрясение, в том числе в Лиссабоне (1755): 1. сообщения в газете „Санкт-Петербургские ведомости” (1755), 2. научные и научно-популярные статьи о земле­трясениях (Михаила Ломоносова, 1757, и др.), 3. труды о Поэме на разрушение Лиссабона Вольтера и письме о нем Ж. Ж. Руссо (перевод Ипполита Богдановича На разрушение Лис­сабона, 1763; перевод письма Вольтера и комментарий И.Г. Рейхеля вжурнале „Собрание лучших сочинений”, 1762; сочинение Василия Левшина, 1789, публ. 1788, и др.). В статье речь идет о теодицеи (диссертация Г. В. Лейбница Опыты теодицеи: о благости Божией, свободе человека и происхождении зла).
Diametros
|
2017
|
issue 54
138-160
PL
Celem artykułu jest wykazanie, że kontakt filozofii europejskiej z kulturą Chin w II poł. XVII – II poł. XVIII wieku wpłynął na powstanie i rozwój sekularyzmu, który stał się charakterystyczną cechą zachodniego Oświecenia. W pierwszej części zamierzam zbadać, w jaki sposób poznanie historii Chin i etyki konfucjańskiej podało w wątpliwość chronologię biblijną i podważyło wiarę jako konieczny warunek moralności. Następnie przeanalizuję próby odparcia tych zarzutów, reinterpretujące konfucjanizm jak krypto-monoteizm. W części trzeciej pokażę, jak debata dotycząca kultury chińskiej przyczyniła się do narodzin świeckiej filozofii historii, która to historiozofia położyła ostateczny kres oświeceniowej sinofilii. W konkluzji przedstawię główne ograniczenia tezy o wpływie myśli chińskiej na narodziny sekularyzmu.
EN
The aim of the article is to demonstrate that the contact between European philosophy and Chinese culture in the 17th and 18th centuries had an influence on the emergence and development of secularism, which became a distinctive feature of the Western Enlightenment. In the first part, I examine in what way knowledge of the history of China and the Confucian ethics contested the Biblical chronology and undermined faith as a prerequisite for morality. Subsequently, I analyze the attempts to refute these allegations, reinterpreting Confucianism as crypto-monotheism. In the third part, I will show how the debate on Chinese culture has contributed to the birth of the secular philosophy of history, which put an end to the Enlightenment Sinophilia. In conclusion, I will present the main limitations of the thesis about the influence of Chinese thought on the birth of secularism.
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