ABSTRACT
Physics, metaphysics, logic, ethics, and aesthetics are the branches or disciplines of philosophy. It might be said that the philosophers of the ancient world were particularly interested in ethics and conduct—hence the popularity of the ethical systems of Stoicism, Epicureanism, and the like—while modern philosophers tend to identify philosophy with deductions from experimental science or with metaphysics. A philosophe might be defined as a reforming publicist of non-Christian ideals; not a speculative philosopher, but an advocate of “improvement” by means of Reason and material ameliorations. In Voltaire’s opinion, the Church held mankind in poverty, ignorance, and subjection, in order to further its material ends, while dazzling them with promises of an illusory immortality and numbing their moral sense with superstitious practices. Voltaire’s opposition to Christianity was social and political as well as sectarian. Voltaire’s anti-Christian hostility itself verged on fanaticism, but he was perfectly ready to admit a tolerant Christianity with ecclesiastics subject to secular authority, as in England.
