3min chapter

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Ep. 27 - Alan Charles Kors: Voltaire’s ‘Philosophical Letters,’ Part II

The Ralston College Podcast

CHAPTER

The Limit of the Arbitrary Use of Power

There's a deep sense in what's going on here in voltaire, whether he's talking about the quakers or talking about parliament. To say that there is a principle that leads to our not being subordinate to arbitrary power is in a way to claim that that principle has a transcendent character. Thisis just exactly to go further into the very question the the limit of the arbitrary use of power. It may be that transcendent is a concept that could be there for voltaire. But it is not part of his language. And if the goal, as we said last week, for voltaire, is utility, how do you diminish the suffering, the unnecessary suffering, of human beings

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