Procès, affaire, cause. Voltaire et l'innovation critique

Abstract

The Trial, the Case, the Cause. Voltaire and the critical innovation. Elisabeth Claverie [76-851 In the 1760's, Voltaire took on the impassioned defense of a number of people accused of crime by judges of Parlement (Calas, Sirven, Chevalier de la Barre). Undertaking this defense meant accusing and, as a consequence, transforming the judiciary arena, in which procedures were secret, into a public arena. The innovation introduced by Voltaire during the Calas case was that, in order to defend him, the philosopher did not look for social or religious support, but brought forward a new definition of honour, making Calas a representative of the "human kind". In so doing Voltaire created a paradigma centered on the notion of Cause, used regularly, and until recently still, in political criticism.