Voltaire, Derrida et les ruses de la raison

Abstract

Voltaire’s writings advance an emblematic understanding of reason in the French Enlightenment, envisaged as a divine gift that makes it possible for humans to put anything into question – except reason itself. Through a reading of various philosophical and literary texts by Voltaire, this article problematizes the sovereignty of Voltairean reason – the totalitarian reason that is at once immune to the very critique it founds and, as such, injurious towards the Other, who is seen as necessarily lacking the capacity to think. Bringing Derrida to bear on Voltaire, the article builds on the former’s view of reason as divisible and antinomic – that is, a reason constituted according to an aporia that admits both a teleological and conditional reason and a circular and unconditional one. As such, reason must then allow itself to be reasoned. The conclusion thus argues for a reconceptualization of reason that welcomes a critique of both sovereign judgement and teleological thinking.