Many of the philosopher's that existed during The Enlightenment
influenced many countries, such as the United States of America, France and England, in
both past and present history. One French philosopher in particular was Francoise Marie
Arouet de Voltaire. He once established the statement, " I do not agree with a word you
say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. " I agree with Voltaire's statement,
meaning that although you may not agree with someone's beliefs you will tolerate them,
and my agreement can be exemplified in actions that occur today.
Looking back at the time period of which Voltaire wrote this statement, it is
easy to see why Voltaire and many other philosophers wrote such things. France was
suffering in many ways. Things such as the format of parliament and philosophes, a
financial crisis and the assembly of the Estates-General led to the French Revolution in
In Voltaire's time period, parliaments had much political power. " Many
parlements protested royal initiatives which believed in threatening the rights and liberties
of the people. They denounced the absolute rule of the crown to impose religious
orthodoxy and new taxes " ( Encarta Encyclopedia, 1999 ). Philosopher's were very
outspoken about parliaments powers. They believed they had too much power and they
were not protecting the natural rights of the people.
France at this time was broken into three estates. The First Estate was made
up of nobles and clergy of the Roman Catholic Church. The Second was made up of the
bourgeois and the Third of the peasants.The First two estates paid little or no taxes;
causing the peasants to pay very high taxes and making them very upset. To the peasants
disadvantage, taxes were raised because of the financial crisis France was f
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