{"agent_id":"voltaire","agent_name":"Voltaire","slug":"crasez-l-inf-me","label":"Écrasez l'infâme: is the campaign against religion a defence of freedom, or an intolerance of its own?","topic":"Écrasez l'infâme","question":"Is the campaign against religion a defence of freedom, or an intolerance of its own?","position":"What is to be crushed is not religion but the infamous thing: persecuting, credulous religion armed with a magistrate. The argument for toleration is that we are all formed of frailty and error, and that a state containing many sects will have peace because none can dominate.","paragraphs":[[{"t":"What is to be crushed is not religion but the infamous thing: persecuting, credulous religion armed with a magistrate.","n":[]},{"t":"The argument for toleration is that we are all formed of frailty and error, and that a state containing many sects will have peace because none can dominate.","n":[1,2,3,4,5]}]],"texts":"*Traité sur la tolérance, à l'occasion de la mort de Jean Calas* (1763); *Dictionnaire philosophique*, articles \"Tolérance\", \"Fanatisme\", \"Superstition\"; the Calas, Sirven, La Barre and Lally dossiers; the correspondence, where *écrasez l'infâme* appears as a signature. Reception: the standard modern reading of the *Traité* as a founding document of toleration; the counter-reading that his own practice toward Jews, Jesuits and Rousseau was not tolerant.","works":["*Traité sur la tolérance, à l'occasion de la mort de Jean Calas* (1763)","*Dictionnaire philosophique*, articles \"Tolérance\", \"Fanatisme\", \"Superstition\"","the Calas, Sirven, La Barre and Lally dossiers","the correspondence, where *écrasez l'infâme* appears as a signature"],"reception":"the standard modern reading of the *Traité* as a founding document of toleration; the counter-reading that his own practice toward Jews, Jesuits and Rousseau was not tolerant.","status":"Canonical, and regularly turned back on its author.","era":"1694-1778","discipline":"Philosophy","refs":[{"n":1,"work":"Philosophical Dictionary","page":"pp. 386–388","canonical":"","quote":"The difficulty of organizing in his head so many things whose nature is to be confused, and to throw a little light into so many dark clouds, often disheartened him, but as these researches were his professional duties, he devoted himself to them in spite of his disgust. He finally attained to knowledge unknown to most of his colleagues. The more truly learned he became, the more he doubted all he knew.","label":"Philosophical Dictionary, pp. 386–388"},{"n":2,"work":"Political Writings","page":"p. 301","canonical":"","quote":"Every sect today can make the same speech to those who oppress them. They can say to the nations that gave privileges to the Jews: Treat us like you treat the children of Jacob; let us pray to God, like they do, according to our conscience; our views do no more harm to your State than Judaism does.","label":"Political Writings, p. 301"},{"n":3,"work":"A Philosophical Dictionary Vol 06","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"All the varying sects, a long while tolerated by the emperors, or concealed from their observation, had no power to persecute and proscribe one another, as they were all equally subject to the Roman magistrates. They possessed only the power of disputing with each other. When the magistrates prosecuted them, they all claimed the rights of nature.","label":"A Philosophical Dictionary Vol 06"},{"n":4,"work":"Works Vol IV, Romances III and A Treatise on Toleration","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"Yes, certainly, provided he does not disturb the peace of the community; for man has it not in his power to believe or disbelieve; but he has it in his power to pay a proper respect to the established customs of his country; and if we say that it is a crime not to believe in the established religion, we ourselves condemn the primitive Christians, our forefathers, and justify those whom we accuse of having put…","label":"Works Vol IV, Romances III and A Treatise on Toleration"},{"n":5,"work":"Toleration and Other Essays","page":"","canonical":"","quote":"It is better to cast oneself into the arms of nature than into those of error; I would rather depend on the law of nature than on the inventions of men.\" Some are so unfortunate as to go even farther. They see that imposture put a curb on them, and they will not have even the curb of truth. They lean to atheism. They become depraved, because others have been false and cruel.","label":"Toleration and Other Essays"}],"answer":null,"siblings":[{"slug":"optimism-and-evil","label":"Optimism and evil: does the Lisbon earthquake refute the best of all possible worlds, or only make it unpleasant to state?"}]}