Rousseau,Voltaire or Montesquieu?

[∞]

Vote now.

[ChrisK]

On what grounds?

[Diogenes]

Rousseau, only because I'm reading the Social Contract right now

[Hoipolloi Cassidy]

Diderot.
Duh.

[∞]

On what grounds?

Whoever seems the most accurate to you.

[southernmissfan]

Rousseau's work probably was the most influential on Marx and definitely on the left wing of the Enlightenment. He emphasized the "general will" as opposed to the extreme individualism of other philosophers of the time, as well as a recognition of property as the cause of inequality.

[greenwarbler]

Voltaire was quite funny, among the Encyclopedists.. though Diderot had his pornography.. Candide, however, exists, as well, and must be recknoed in the mix..

[Apoi_Viitor]

Voltaire, on his own deathbed, was asked by a priest to renounce Satan and turn to God, he is alleged to have replied, "Now is no time to be making new enemies". :lol:

[StalinFanboy]

nietzsche

[Property Is Robbery]

Rousseau coined the term "noble savage" for Native Americans and Voltaire was an Anti-Semite and against democracy(for fear of the idiotic masses). So Montesquieu.

[StalinFanboy]

Rousseau coined the term "noble savage" for Native Americans and Voltaire was an Anti-Semite and against democracy(for fear of the idiotic masses). So Montesquieu.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EFtNhvRZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

[Nolan]

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41EFtNhvRZL._SL500_AA300_.jpg


Too bad there is no book by Marx with that title.

[Zanthorus]

Too bad there is very little evidence that Marx was an anti-semite at all. He did have a few pokes at the Jewish religion, but for some reason people find it hard to differentiate between religious beliefs and ethnicity, especially when it is a question of discrediting the man who is quite possibly the most important communist in history.

[hatzel]

Rousseau, only because I'm reading the Social Contract right now

And because my mouth is still full with the sour taste of the Social Contract: literally anybody else in the whole wide world except Rousseau...

[Ostrinski]

Voltaire. I don't know that he was anti-Semitic, he was more just anti-clerical in general.

[Tommy4ever]

Voltaire because he's fucking funny. :D

[Jose Gracchus]

Marx did call Lassalle a "Jewish nigger" though.

[Ostrinski]

Voltaire because he's fucking funny. :D
Indeedth, his sarcastic cynic is very entertaining.

[deLarge]

I though Marx was Jewish? Or at least of Jewish ancestry.

[Burn A Flag]

He was but he must not have followed Judaism.

[hatzel]

Robespierre, at least he got something done. He wasn't just sitting there hypothesizing garbage. He single-handily destroyed feudalism. (Kinda like me.)

I think I was just sick in my mouth :blink:

Oh, and all your posts so far seem vaguely trollish. Try to reel that in...

[Lorax]

Rousseau criticized Hobbes for asserting that since man in the "state of nature . . . has no idea of goodness he must be naturally wicked; that he is vicious because he does not know virtue". On the contrary, Rousseau holds that "uncorrupted morals" prevail in the "state of nature" and he especially praised the admirable moderation of the Caribbeans in expressing the sexual urge despite the fact that they live in a hot climate, which "always seems to inflame the passions". This has led Anglophone critics to erroneously attribute to Rousseau the invention of the idea of the noble savage, an oxymoronic expression that was never used in France and which grossly misrepresents Rousseau's thought. The expression, "the noble savage" was first used in 1672 by British poet John Dryden in his play The Conquest of Granada.

-from Rousseau's Wikipedia page

Rousseau's thoughts on this topic seem to be very similar to Marx's own thoughts on primitive communism and may well have helped inspire them.