Voltaire Born in 1694, in Paris, France, Voltaire established himself as one of the leading writers of the Age of Enlightenment. His famous works include the tragic play Zaire, the historical study Le Siècle de Louis XIV, and the satirical short story Candide. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why violent video games should not be banned'? Get the original essay Often at odds with French authorities over his politically charged works, he was twice imprisoned and spent many years in exile. He died shortly after returning to Paris in 1778. François-Marie d'Arouet (1694–1778), better known by his pseudonym Voltaire, was a French writer and public activist who played a singular role in defining the 18th-century movement called the Enlightenment. Central to his work was a new conception of philosophy and the philosopher which, in several crucial respects, influenced the modern concept of each. Yet in other respects Voltaire was not a philosopher at all in the modern sense. He wrote as many plays, stories, and poems as he did overtly philosophical treatises, and he actually directed many of his critical writings against the philosophical claims of recognized philosophers such as Leibniz, Malebranche, and Descartes. He was, however, a vigorous defender of a conception of natural sciences which served in his mind as an antidote to vain and fruitless philosophical research. By clarifying this new distinction between science and philosophy, and especially by fighting vigorously for it in public campaigns directed against the perceived enemies of fanaticism and superstition, Voltaire steered modern philosophy down several paths that it subsequently followed. Voltaire comes from the middle class. According to his birth certificate, he was born on November 21, 1694, but the hypothesis that his birth was kept secret cannot be ruled out, because he repeatedly claimed that it took place on February 20. believed he was the son of an officer named Rochebrune, who was also a songwriter. He loved neither his putative father, François Arouet, a former notary who later became receiver at the Court of Auditors, nor his older brother Armand. Please note: this is just a sample. Get a custom article now from our expert writers.Get a custom essay Almost nothing is known about his mother, about whom he has said almost nothing. After losing her at the age of seven, he seems to have become one of the first rebels against family authority. He became attached to his godfather, the Abbot of Châteauneuf, a free thinker and epicurean who introduced the boy to the famous courtesan Ninon de Lenclos when she was 84 years old. There is no doubt that he owes his optimism and sense of reality to his bourgeois origins...