Voltaire, the witty and colloquial thinker

Abstract

(Review to Voltaire, Taccuino di pensieri. Vademecum per l’uomo del terzo millennio, edited by D. Felice, preface by E. Ferrero, Milano-Udine, Mimesis, 2019). Voltaire is undoubtedly one of the most interesting philosophers of modern thought. He is stimulating and rich in wit, as he deals with a wide range of themes and subjects. The Taccuino dei pensieri, edited by Domenico Felice, presents an extensive selection of aphorisms, thoughts and materials by the French author; its aim is to emphasize the complexity of the themes developed by the transalpine thinker and, at the same time, to highlight Voltaire’s ability to interact with the reader, who is not considered as a passive receiver, but as a co-author, inevitably fascinated by the writer’s wit. The work, by taking into account the vastness and the heterogeneity of the issues discussed by Voltaire, also underlines their modernity in a historical period like ours, afflicted by intellectual indolence and cultural poverty.